Detour to Darkness
by Nimondor
Summary: Sora, Donald and Goofy have landed in Saffron City, Kanto, in search of King Mickey, Riku and Kairi. Not only did they discover that an evil organization is plotting to take over the region, the gummi ship's systems are fried and they can't leave until it is repaired, heartless swarm the place and their new friend just won't tell them his name.
1. Phantom

**A/N:** So, this is just a random idea that I thought of at like 2am one day and decided to go with it. I don't really have a set schedule for it, it's just something I felt like writing in between my other fanfics. I already have it mostly written out, and it will only be 11 chapters or so long. This is set in the pokemon game's world and during KH2.

There is mild RedxGreen (f) later on.

I'm trying to make this as Kingdom Hearts-y as possible, so it won't feel like a pokemon game, lol.

 **CHALLENGE: Count how many Easter Eggs are hidden throughout the fic! I'll be counting ;)**

So, without further blabbing, here is chapter one! Enjoy!

* * *

 _Chapter One: PHANTOM_

X-X-X

If she had known this man held so much power, she would have come here much sooner.

Much, much sooner.

She walked calmly through the dimly lit halls as she followed a pair of men dressed in black towards a red double-door, her light footsteps hidden inside of flowing, black robes and a long staff in one hand that accompanied her calm pace. The pair in front of her would occasionally look back, perhaps to make sure she was still there but even she knew those nervous looks in their eyes. They had never seen someone such as herself before.

She easily was taller than they by a few inches, walked with the elegance of a queen and sported a sharp pair of horns on the top of her head that matched those intelligent, cruel eyes. The pair ahead of her barely paused to grab either side of the doorknobs and opened them completely to let her in, who didn't even hesitate to keep walking. The man at the desk stood up in greeting, regarding her with a harsh gaze and standing rigidly, much like any businessman would.

The visitor waited until the doors closed until she parted her arms and gave a small, yet polite courtesy. "I am glad you have accepted my summons," she said. She straightened, bringing her arms to her sides again. "I do hope we will work well in the future."

"I see now that I have no reason to doubt you are indeed from another world. However, there is no need for small talk," the man replied, motioning towards the empty chair in front of the desk as he sat down in his own. The cat creature beside him mewed, putting its head onto his thigh that he subconsciously scratched. "Tell me, what is this about another world?"

The woman smiled, accepting the seat she had been offered, keeping the staff in one hand and placed her other arm on the armrest. "Not just one, my dear friend. There are several. Your world and mine are only a couple among hundreds, perhaps even thousands. Every star is a world. Each world is vastly different, as you can see." She briefly motioned around the room and a smirk formed. "If I tell you I can give you a power you could have never dreamed of?"

The man didn't betray his confusion, and he smiled instead as calmly as he could, crossing his leg onto his knee and placed his hands into his lap. The cat creature also watched the woman, curiosity obvious but it held just as much malice as its owner. "Power is something I already have." The cat gave an agreeing sound.

She laughed, and the distinct sound sent chills even through his spine. "Even I have heard of your organization being run out of town and by a child, no less."

He gritted his teeth together in frustration. "It was a minor setback. It will not happen again."

The woman rose a brow. "Minor, you say. You say you hold power, yet with that 'minor setback,' you lost more than you have gained, am I correct in that assumption?"

"And your point?" he snapped, growing irritated.

She smiled to herself one more time. "I can ensure it does not happen again. I hold powers this world has never seen, and I can bestow them upon you." She stood, tapping the staff once on the ground. From in front of said staff, a black _something_ rose from the ground, two round, yellow eyes looking around wildly but it did nothing and wouldn't without command. "I can give you the power to wield an army, to ensure another 'minor setback' may never occur again."

He would be lying if he said he wasn't impressed. The cat was hissing but it was silenced as soon as the man placed a hand onto its head. "I was not expecting this. Very well, I will listen to what you have to say, Maleficent."

The woman's lips curved upward a final time, banishing the creature back to wherever it came from. "I know that our mutual partnership shall be one people shall talk through the ages, Giovanni."

X-X-X

Sora yawned loudly within the Gummi Ship.

It had been a painfully long ride within the small interior and the landing had been so gentle he hadn't even woken up until Goofy came over to shake his shoulder to tell them they had arrived. They were only out this far after discovering that there was another link that had sprouted from Twilight Town, one world that could most likely lead to so many more.

Sora finally opened his eyes and followed Goofy out of the ship with newfound excitement, seeing the sun just beginning to set and a large, bustling city in front of them. It was a sight he'd never seen before and Goofy was right beside him, just as amazed. "Whoa!" he said and ran forward a couple of paces. "This place is _huge_!"

"Yeah and look at that!" Donald said as he came out then pointed to the sky towards the tallest building, which was easily seen even from where they stood.

It was extremely tall even among the other sky scrapers, each floor window lit with a red and white logo at the top on the side facing them. There was no doubt that the opposite side had the same sign. "What's Silph Co.?" Goofy wondered out loud, tapping his chin in thought.

"Dunno," Sora replied. "But I do know that Riku, Kairi and Mickey could all be here."

"That's why we have to get going as soon as we can," Donald replied. "Are you two ready to go?"

Sora was about to reply when an alarm blared loudly and all three of them turned towards the ship suddenly. "H-hey, what's going on with the Gummi Ship?!"

The alarm slowly died even as two familiar chipmunks ran out, coughing and waving smoke from their faces. Sora suddenly felt lucky that the pair had come along for this ride with them, who had both insisted that they wanted to upgrade the engine while they were out exploring the new world. The one with the red nose gave a squeaking noise and looked up at Sora then both of them pointed. "All the systems are fried!" Dale cried.

"We have no power!" Chip shouted alongside his partner, both jumping up and down.

"What do you mean we have no power? We were fine when we landed!" Donald snapped.

"There! That's why!" Chip pointed inside of the ship and the other three curiously watched as a large and very yellow rat with red cheeks ran out, pausing once its four paws hit the grass.

"What is it?" Sora asked and it blinked slowly as it watched them. "Hey! Did you do this to our ship?"

"Get over here!" Donald shouted instead and ran after the mouse.

"Wait, Donald don't—!"

It didn't even flinch as the angry duck ran towards him, then suddenly stood its ground as soon as Donald was a few feet away before crying loudly, "PIKA!" Electricity blasted from its body and hit Donald head-on and once satisfied Donald wouldn't run after it, it ran away with incredible speed for the city.

"Donald! Donald, you okay?" Sora asked and ran to Donald as the duck slowly sat up, his eyes seeming to around in circles. "Hey, snap out of it!"

Donald shook his head furiously and blinked. "Why that little—get back here!" he shouted, getting to his feet and sprinted after the yellow mouse instead.

"Donald! Goofy, come on!" Sora said and started running after Donald.

"Wait up, guys!" Goofy shouted and jogged after his friends as they chased after the mouse.

Chip and Dale watched them disappear and finally looked back at the ship, scratching their heads. They could definitely repair it, it would just take some time.

X-X-X

Sora, Donald and Goofy chased the mouse to the best of their abilities, ignoring some startled cries from other people and various other creatures, but they paid them no mind—two of them were trying to stop their friend and their friend was furious that he had been electrocuted, of all things!

The mouse led them through many streets and twists and turns, trying to lose its pursuers and if Sora didn't know any better, it looked like it was laughing at them. It turned quickly into an alley, the only clue that it had gone in was the tip of its tail and that tip wasn't hidden by Donald's keen vision. He sprinted towards it at full speed just before someone stepped out, looking behind him and didn't see the running trio until it was too late.

Donald gave a sudden cry when he hit the stranger and it was quickly followed by Sora and Goofy and the boy gave a startled yelp as they all crashed hard to the ground. "Ow… Donald! What's the big idea?" Sora scolded, not seeing who was underneath them.

"I ran into something!" the duck responded, nursing his beak.

"You ran into me!" the person beneath them snapped. "Get off so I can breathe!" All three of them immediately scrambled off of the boy, who groaned as he sat up and rubbed his head. "Watch where you're going!"

"We're sorry, we didn't mean to run into you," Goofy replied. He quickly noticed that this boy had brown hair and its spikiness rivaled Sora's. "Are you okay?"

The boy scoffed and ignored Sora's offer to help him up as he stood up on his own, brushing dust and dirt off. "Whatever."

Donald was looking around and finally pouted when he couldn't see the yellow mouse anymore. "Aww, we lost it…"

Sora looked at the boy as he straightened his shirt. "Did you see a yellow mouse run through here?"

The boy's green eyes narrowed suspiciously, crossing his arms across his chest. Who in the world were these people? "What if I did? What's it to you?"

"You don't need to give us attitude!" Donald snapped. "We said we were sorry!"

"Please, can you tell us? We were taking a break from a long trip and it broke something of ours," Sora said. Even though it wasn't the whole truth, at least it wasn't a lie. "We just want to see why it did that!"

The boy started to laugh, causing the three friends to look at each other. "That was Pikachu," the boy said, wiping an eye. "That means my rival is here, too. Took him long enough to catch up."

Sora finally smiled. "My name's Sora, nice to meet you!"

"I'm Donald!"

"And I'm Goofy!"

The boy nodded at them. "The name's Blue. As for Pikachu, it's probably looking for its trainer, but I have no idea where he's at." He suddenly sighed. "You've chosen a fine time to visit Saffron City, though. How come?"

The three looked between each other and each gave their own smiles. "We're looking for our friends. Have you seen a guy with white hair and a girl with him? Their names are Riku and Kairi—"

"And we're looking for King Mickey!" Goofy interrupted while Donald nodded beside him.

Blue tapped his chin. "Can't say that I have, sorry."

"Oh, well. It was worth a shot." Sora then turned back to Blue. "What do you mean that it's a fine time? You didn't sound happy when you said that."

The boy snorted at them. "Haven't you heard anything in the news? People are disappearing all the time and Team Rocket's come to this place, too. I heard they invaded the Silph Co. building."

"Sounds like trouble!" Goofy exclaimed.

Sora nodded, then turned to Blue again, who watched them with a strange look on his face, as if trying to figure out what in the world Goofy and Donald were, but he said nothing about it. "We saw that building when we first got here! But people disappearing is never good."

"That's why I'm headed there now, until you guys ran into me." Blue flicked his eyes to the side and turned suddenly. "And those _things_ are showing up everywhere in town, too," he said, frowning as he reached for something on his belt and pulled out a red and white sphere. He suddenly threw it in front of him. "Eevee, go!"

"Vui!" the small brown creature cried, bravely standing in front of one of the strange creatures, a pure black entity with two antennae on its head and very bright and wide yellow eyes. The very distinguishable creature instantly caught the trio's attention.

Sora's eyes widened and got into a defensive stance just as Goofy and Donald did as well. "Blue, that's what we call the Heartless!"

Blue just _looked_ at them, pure confusion on his face. "Heartless?"

"They steal people's hearts!" Donald said, holding his staff in his hand.

"So be careful around them, don't let them take yours!" Goofy warned.

Blue gave a confident laugh and smile, returning his attention to the battle in front of him. "They're easy enough to beat, I've beaten lots of them ever since coming here. Eevee, use Quick Attack!"

Eevee shot forward so suddenly even Goofy was impressed by its speed as it attacked the Heartless without mercy, jumping away just before it was hit. "Vee!" It landed behind it, already running towards it as Blue shouted, "Bite!"

Eevee attacked the Shadow without hesitation and finally it disappeared into thousands of pieces of shadow and once it finally done, Blue smirked and recalled Eevee. Sora was impressed that he could defeat a Heartless so easily then watched as Blue turned to the new trio. As Blue clipped Eevee's pokéball to his belt, he crossed his arms across his chest. "That's how a pokemon trainer does it—"

"Watch out, Blue!" Sora shouted, running in front of him and instantly summoned the Keyblade as three Shadows leaped from the wall for the unexpected Blue.

The moment it appeared in his hands, Blue's eyes widened and stumbled back as the three were disposed of in bursts of darkness and all three seemingly turned into heart-shaped lights, which rose into the sky—something that he hadn't been able to do—and disappeared. Sora sighed and let the keyblade disappear before turning to Blue. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Never better… what did you just do?!" he asked, and Sora bashfully rubbed his head.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. I have a feeling that Team Rocket is dealing with the Heartless, so we'll go to the Silph Co. building with you."

Blue nodded once. "If you really want. Try to keep up!"

X-X-X

The sun had completely set by the time they reached the Silph Co. building which up close, was extremely intimidating and it seemed taller than it was when they had first arrived. There was something about the building that didn't seem right, and it seemed like Goofy, Donald and Blue also sensed it, the four of them looking between each other before they started for the entrance. Sora craned his head to look at the very top of the building, which seemed to disappear into the starry sky.

When they had first started heading for the ominous building, they had fought several Heartless, mostly Shadow and they seemed like they were centered around the Silph Co. building. Goofy mentioned that it was possible the one controlling the Heartless was in there and the others didn't have any doubts about that. Blue had no more complaints or questions as to how Sora, Donald and Goofy fought them off with such ease, how they were able to summon strange weapons from thin air and instead decided he was grateful they were on his side.

Inside of the building was grand, the clean walls giving an unnatural shine in the empty first floor however there were a great deal of strange people in the upper floors, dressed in some kind of uniform but most of them seemed like they had been recently knocked out and upon touching one, it shocked Goofy's finger. Blue only smiled, looking at the stairs. "Come on, he's already here. For once, he's ahead of me!" he said, almost excited despite the situation.

"Who's already ahead of you?" Sora asked as he followed him up the stairs.

He shrugged. "My rival. His name's R—"

"Hey!" shouted a voice, and two men holding those spheres appeared from a door. All four of them turned around and Blue stepped forward, also taking one of the pokéballs into his hand.

"Pfft, you two are just grunts," he taunted and then looked at Sora, Donald and Goofy. "I'll take care of these two, there's nothing you can do here. Go to the top floor, that's probably where he's at, and the way this is going, there's probably loads of those Heartless up there and he's probably getting tired."

"You got it!" Sora said and gave him a thumbs-up before running up the stairs as he heard Blue release Eevee again for a battle.

As they walked, Donald was the one who seemed to be concerned, looking behind them as they went up a few floors. "Do you think Blue will be okay by himself?" he asked.

"Yup! He seems to be strong anyway," Goofy replied confidently. "Eevee, too."

"We just have to find his friend. There's probably Heartless all over the place!" Sora added, summoning the keyblade one more time as four Soldiers and two Red Nocturnes appeared before them. He ran forward towards one of the Heartless, jumping into the air and slashed at one of the Red Nocturnes. Stunned, the small Heartless stumbled backwards in the air and Donald finished it off with a Blizzaga as Goofy kept two of the Soldiers busy.

Once Sora landed, the two Soldiers were gone and he was already going after one of the Soldiers. He'd done this for too long to even have to think about what to do in a fight—he'd learned the hard way, after all. If you stop, you'd get hurt, or worse.

The final five Heartless were easily taken care of and without wasting another moment, the three friends ran up the stairs, slashing, freezing and bashing away the Heartless that came out in droves. They went up another six flights of stairs, and each floor had been littered with the Heartless, seemingly in every nook and cranny of the place.

Sora lowered the keyblade, wiping his brow. "This place is _crawling_ with Heartless!" he panted, the three of them having just defeated a Large Body.

Donald also was out of breath but he grinned. "Just think of it as good practice!"

"And as long as all three of us are together, then we'll be fine!" Goofy added, also smiling and Sora nodded.

"But how did Blue's friend get past all this?" Sora wondered, and Goofy shrugged. "Come on, let's go!"

Donald looked at the stairs as if they were his worst enemy as Sora and Goofy ran up them. "Why does there have to be more stairs?" he whined before going after the other two. Sora smiled in sympathy but felt just the same way. There were absolutely too many stairs and he thought to himself that there just had to be another way up.

By the time they finally reached the top floor, all three jumped when there was a loud explosion, and Sora didn't doubt it had come from behind the door. He ran forward, opening it quickly and covered his face as a blast of hot wind hit them, and as soon as he managed to lower his arm, he saw a helicopter flying away, as well as half the top floor being blown off.

"Hey!" Donald suddenly shouted and pointed.

Floating above the broken floor was and Heartless with a red orb beneath it and garbed in a grayish blue cloak, though it had nothing inside of it. Clawed hands seemed to be wrapped around the cloak and it was reaching for something that was on the ground. However, Donald wasn't pointing towards the Phantom that faced its opponent, he was pointing towards a certain yellow mouse whose cheeks were sparking like mad, shooting off a powerful electric attack, nothing like what Donald and Sora could cast.

"It's that blasted Pikachu!" Donald seemed to be fuming already, however he brought out his staff anyway as the Phantom continued to ignore them, beginning to bend down towards Pikachu and practically ignoring its attacks.

"Uh, it looks like its protecting someone!" Goofy cried, pointing behind Pikachu's small form. Sora turned his eyes to follow Goofy's finger; on the ground lay an unconscious boy, blissfully unaware of the Heartless that reached for him.

"Hey, ugly!" Sora shouted, running for the Phantom and threw the keyblade as hard as he could onto the Phantom's arm. The Phantom screeched, more so in annoyance than anything else, and pulled its arm back, only now noticing the three of them. Just as quickly as he had thrown it, the keyblade returned to his hands and Sora grinned, watching it as it turned to them now, ignoring Pikachu and the boy.

Goofy pulled his shield out, holding it in front of him before he noticed someone running from behind them, panting and looked up at the creature in front of them in a bit of shock. Blue then looked down, his eyes widening as he recognized the fallen form. "Distract that thing for me and I'll get him out of here!" he shouted, and the other three nodded.

"Wait, how did you get up here so fast? Why aren't you out of breath?" Donald instantly demanded.

"Huh? I used the warp panels, didn't you?" Blue didn't wait for Donald's reaction before running around the side to both avoid being hit by the Phantom's claws and to go for Pikachu, who cried out the instant it saw him. Blue grunted as he wrapped one of the boy's arms around his neck. "Geeze, you're heavy! Pikachu, come on! Leave that to Sora and his friends!"

Pikachu looked at Sora almost in worry and the boy grinned, giving him a thumbs-up. Satisfied, Pikachu followed Blue and together, they stepped on a green panel and they disappeared into thin air.

"Why didn't he mention those before?!" Donald was shouting, returning to Sora's side. Goofy joined them, holding his shield up defensively.

"It doesn't matter right now, Donald!" Sora said, watching as the Phantom rose to its full height. Even if it didn't have a face, it seemed angry, giving an unnatural screech as it rose two hands in the air, casting Dark Fireball. Sora smiled. "We've done this before, let's go you guys!"

Donald and Goofy charged with Sora, ready to defeat the Heartless before them.

X-X-X


	2. Red

**A/N:** An update within two days?! What? I never do that!

 **haiku101:** It took me forever to beat it too XD I don't remember how many times it took me, I just know I was about to ragequit lol. I wouldn't call myself a writing god, just a lady who likes to write, play video games and has no life :P

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Chapter _2: RED_

X-X-X

Sora feinted; the Phantom had tried to attack him using its claws and missed when the boy jumped back, the orb beneath it changing from red to yellow and jumped back to avoid it before shouting, "Donald!"

Without a moment's hesitation, the duck rose his staff high into the air and yelled, "Thunder!"

The now yellow orb beneath Phantom finally cracked and shattered after the Thundaga Donald cast and it cried out in pain, the sound piercing the air and echoed through the sky. It floated upwards and flew out of the way of Sora's next attack and swooped down, casting Dark Fireball and let it distract Donald as it then went after Goofy. Sora grunted, running after it to get back within range of the keyblade. Goofy held his shield up, using it to block its claws and slammed the shield into its other hand. The Phantom pulled its arm back, making a hissing noise as Sora leaped to attack again.

The Heartless seemed to be more wary of their attacks now, quickly dodging Goofy's shield attack and right after Donald had been hit by the Dark Fireball, he was back up onto his feet and sent another Thundaga just as it casted one more Dark Fireball.

Goofy intervened before it hit Donald, using his shield to block it and stumbled back a few paces. "Whoa! You okay Donald?" he said and Donald nodded with a thanks. When the Phantom pulled away, Goofy span rapidly, crashing into it several times with his shield, successfully doing a great deal of damage and once it was cornered against one of the broken walls, it started to rise into the air again. Sora leaped up, slamming the Keyblade down and forced it back down, much to its annoyance and tried to reach for Sora again.

Donald sent a Blizzaga into its hand before it could grab the boy—at least, where its hand was supposed to be. The Heartless gave another cry and floated back just above the floor while Sora jumped up again, slashing at it with the keyblade as hard and fast as he could. He repeated the process a few more times, the Phantom becoming sloppy when it became desperate to get rid of them. It screeched, lunging forward with its claws as Sora dodged them easily, stabbing it with its keyblade straight through its missing face.

He panted as he landed and lowered the keyblade, hearing it give a painful cry, clawing at its face and finally disappeared into thousands of pieces, the large heart floating up into the air and disappeared.

Once sure that it was gone, Sora gave a relieved sigh and turned to Donald and Goofy, both who looked just as exhausted as he felt. "We did it!"

"Yippee!" Goofy said, a big grin on his face.

"Ugh," Donald said instead. He was about to walk to them before something caught his eye, causing him to blink a few times before waddling to the broken desk. "Huh? What's this?"

Sora and Goofy looked over, seeing him finally heading for them and handed Sora what he'd found. Upon closer examination, they saw that it was purple sphere engraved with the letter 'M' just above a button. "Gawrsh, this looks like another one of those circle thingamabobs Blue threw," Goofy mentioned.

"Yeah, it kinda does," Sora replied. He put it into his pocket. "We can give it to him when we see him next time. Come on, let's get out of here."

Donald pointed, his annoyance returning instantly. "He left using those warp pads that he didn't tell us about!" he said loudly, stomping his feet as he walked for it. He ignored Sora and Goofy's laughter and stepped onto it, disappearing. Amazed, they stopped laughing and ran to it as well.

They reappeared behind a desk and when Sora looked up, he saw that it was the first floor of the building, still empty and still squeaky clean. Outside, he knew there would be several people standing around just by the noise that was going on and they quickly left through the side door next to the desk, lost among the thick crowds that surrounded the building.

X-X-X

"Well, at least we know why all those Heartless were around," Donald said.

They were a ways from the active street, far from the noise and destruction as they wandered around, trying to find their way back towards the gummi ship. Even though the three were an odd sight in town, barely anyone stopped to ask questions and Sora walked with Donald and Goofy with his hands behind his head, looking lost in thought.

"Yup, now we just have to find the way back to the ship and see if Chip 'n Dale fixed it yet," Goofy replied while Donald nodded in agreement.

"I want to see if Blue and his friend are okay," Sora interrupted. He stopped and turned his head around, bringing his arms back to his sides as he searched. "But where did they go?"

"Look!"

He snapped his head forward when Donald pointed, seeing Pikachu on the corner in front of them, as if it had been waiting for them. The instant it spotted them, it got onto its two back paws and waved with a big smile on its face. _"Pikachu!"_ it cried.

"It's Pikachu!" Goofy said and the three of them approached it as it waited.

"Hiya, Pikachu. You okay?" Sora asked, bending down and Pikachu bobbed its head up and down.

"Pika, chu. Chu! Pika! Pika!" It chattered on and finally pointed towards a building with a red roof. "Pikachu!"

"Huh? I don't understand," Sora admitted and a bit of annoyance crept onto the yellow mouse's face. He pointed again and Sora shook his head, looking at Donald and Goofy, who both shook their own heads. Finally Pikachu sighed and waved for them to follow it.

When it got onto four paws and started jogging towards the building, Sora finally understood and started to follow with Donald and Goofy trailing behind. The building they were being led into was nearly empty, it was the middle of the night, but the inside was completely lit up and a familiar boy was waiting for them on one of the reddish pink couches, tossing one of the spheres in his hands up and down in the air. Once he spotted them, Blue waved. "Yo!"

Sora watched as Pikachu nodded, its job done and darted off elsewhere down the hall, entering one of the open rooms down the hall. "Is your friend okay, Blue?" Goofy asked, sitting down on the couch that mirrored the one Blue sat on.

"Yeah, he'll be fine," Blue said and waved it off. "I take it you got rid of that thing?"

Donald nodded. "Yup! No more Phantom in this place!"

He looked confused, leaning back in his seat. "A phantom? I thought it was a Heartless?"

Sora smiled as he sat down in between Goofy and Donald. "No, its name is Phantom, it was still a Heartless," he replied, earning Blue's curious attention. "The smaller ones that you helped us fight off were called Shadow. There are tons of Heartless out there like Large Bodies, Soldiers, Air Pirates, etcetera."

He seemed to quickly understand, putting the pieces together as he nodded. "Kind of like how Pikachu and Eevee are pokemon but different?"

"Kind of—"

"What's a pokemon, anyway?" Donald interrupted eagerly. "And what is that keeps putting Eevee inside of it?"

Blue smiled, his face lighting up as if it was his favorite subject to talk about and he opened the ball in his hand, Eevee appearing in his lap with a delighted, "Eevee, vee!"

"You haven't formally met, but this is Sora, Donald and Goofy," he told Eevee, who examined the newcomers with a smile and a nod. Blue looked back at the trio on the couch in front of him and started to explain everything. "He's a pokemon, which are creatures that hold lots of power within them. There are eighteen different types—I guess you'd call them elements. Pikachu is an electric-type, while Eevee here is a normal-type. To put it simply, fire beats grass, grass beats water and water beats fire. Everything has a strength and weakness to something."

He held out the red and white ball. "This is called a pokéball, it catches pokemon and we humans can train them to become strong. There are several hundred pokemon in the world, and one hundred and forty nine of them live in Kanto alone."

Sora tilted his head. "Kanto?"

"That's what the region is called. We're currently in Saffron City, like I told you before."

"Vee!" Eevee said, happily accepting the head scratched Blue gave him. He then looked towards the hall, getting up out of Blue's lap and wandered towards the room Pikachu had disappeared into and Blue didn't mind, putting the sphere into his pocket.

Blue leaned forward. "I'm what's called a pokemon trainer. I'm trying to catch and train the best pokemon team to become the champion and to do that, I travel around Kanto to do that and collect badges." He proudly held out a case, showing two empty spots, but the other six were full. "These are badges and you need eight to challenge the Elite Four."

"That sounds like fun!" Goofy said and Sora nodded in agreement.

"It does, but it sounds like it's very hard work," Donald added.

Blue nodded and crossed his arms. "The thing is though, I've beaten most of the trainers I've come up against. The only one I've never beaten is my rival, and people are saying that he is a battling prodigy. They're saying he's never lost a battle. I've sworn to myself that I'll make it my goal to beat him and break that record." He grinned, looking back at them. "Now that I've told you about pokemon, tell me what that thing is that you summon from thin air. What is it?"

Sora blinked and held out his hand, summoning his keyblade. "This is a keyblade, it's a weapon that can release the hearts of the Heartless." He smiled as he held it in both hands. "If anyone tries to take it, it'll just come right back to me. Here, take it."

Blue blinked and obeyed, taking the hilt and gave a yelp when it disappeared from his hand to re-appear in Sora's grasp. "That's something, all right." He glanced to the side as Eevee trotted out happily and following it was Pikachu, who jumped up onto the coffee table that rested between the couches. It sniffed the keyblade at first and gave a squeak when it disappeared but looked up at Sora, smiling and jumped up onto his shoulder, nuzzling his cheek with his head, causing to the boy to laugh and Goofy to chuckle. "Huh. Seems like Pikachu really likes you."

"Well, I like Pikachu too, even if it did damage the ship."

"Pikachu damaged… your ship?" Blue stared and didn't bother hiding his confusion.

Sora blinked rapidly, now realizing what he had just said and sighed. There was no avoiding it now. "Well, yea. The truth is—"

"We can't tell anyone about it! You know the rules!" Donald shouted, and Pikachu looked at him, its cheeks beginning to spark again. Donald made a frustrated sound, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Can't tell anyone what?" Blue inquired, trying to push them.

Goofy spoke up, smiling as he said, "We're from another world!"

Blue stared at them and Donald jumped. "Goofy! You know better than to tell anyone that!" he scolded.

"He doesn't seem like a bad person, Donald!"

Donald grumbled something under his breath, shaking his head. Sora took a breath at the exchange, waiting to hear Blue's reaction.

"So?"

Sora looked at Blue, not expecting that response. "You're not shocked? Or scared?"

He shook his head, chuckling to himself. "It's painfully obvious that you aren't from here." Blue looked at Goofy and Donald. "Those two don't look like pokemon and you definitely don't look like a pokemon trainer. You took care of those Heartless without a problem and didn't even need to use a pokemon." He stretched and yawned. "It's about time to get to sleep, though. If you want, you can ask Nurse Joy for a room, she'll let you rent one for free for one night but after that, she'll charge you to stay."

Sora nodded. "Got it, but I have another question."

Blue stood up and looked at him while Eevee joined him at his feet loyally, tilting his head curiously at Sora. "And what's that?" he asked. "Make it quick though, Eevee and I have to get going in the morning."

"What does Team Rocket want anyway? They seem like a problem and we can help you guys get rid of it."

Blue laughed again. "I'm not after Team Rocket, they aren't bothering me."

"But I thought you were! You said yourself that you were going to the Silph Co. building!" Donald said with a shocked expression. Goofy also looked startled, though he didn't say anything, instead preferring to listen.

"That's because my rival was there. I wasn't planning to go there, but when I saw Pikachu running down the alley before you three ran into me, I knew where he was headed." He blinked a few times in thought then grinned. "I think you three are more suited for traveling with him."

"How come?" Sora asked and watched as Blue picked Eevee up.

"He's a pokemon trainer as well but he's going after them _and_ the badges _and_ the Elite Four. I told him he's wasting his time with Team Rocket, though, that I'd become champion before him but he doesn't listen." He looked at Pikachu as it remained calmly on Sora's shoulder as he also stood with Donald and Goofy. When he yawned a second time, he started down the hallway, waving as he did so. "Good night, smell you later."

Sora blinked. "Smell me?" he wondered out loud and Donald looked up at him as Goofy shrugged.

"He's just being rude again," he said. "Let's go get a room, maybe Pikachu can lead us to the Gummi Ship tomorrow."

"Pika!" Pikachu nodded, still perched on Sora's shoulder as they headed for the front desk.

A nurse was sitting behind it, tapping something on a keyboard and looked up when she saw them. "Oh, my! Isn't it late for you to be out?" she said, looking back at the screen. "You want a room, right?"

"Yes, please. Oh, with three beds."

"Pika pi!"

X-X-X

Once it was morning, Sora, Donald and Goofy were outside of the pokemon center and each looked around for a single thing: Pikachu. The little mouse wasn't in the room when they had woken up and by the time they were out of the room, a few people had said that a Pikachu and its trainer had already left. "Do ya think Blue told his friend to stay and wait for us?" Goofy asked, squinting as he looked around.

"Doubt it at this point," Sora said and groaned. "Come on, let's go look for them."

They jogged through the streets, going up and down each and every single one. It was nearly lunch time when they took a break, standing on the sidewalk and faced each other. "Why didn't they wait for us?" Donald asked, tapping his foot against the floor in irritation.

Sora shrugged. "Maybe they just forgot?" He looked down when he felt something tug at his capris, and he smiled once he saw who it was. "Pikachu! We've been looking all over for you!"

Pikachu nodded and Donald put his hands on his hips. "And when are you going to fix our ship?" he demanded. Pikachu just rolled its eyes at him, then with a free paw, pointed down the street.

"Pika!" It started to run and Sora didn't waste any time following Pikachu down the street. Soon Sora saw what Pikachu was running for, and a boy with dark hair turned, smiling when it saw Pikachu and caught it in his arms when it jumped into his chest. Sora stopped, recognizing the boy they had helped before and smiled. "Chu, chu, pika," Pikachu told him and pointed to Sora.

The boy turned and looked up, red eyes staring at them with a little confusion but remained quiet. He looked curious, staring at Donald and Goofy unintentionally.

"Hi! I know you don't know us, but I'm Sora, this is Donald and Goofy. We saw you in the building last night and rescued you from the Heartless. Well, Blue dragged you out."

Surprise appeared on his face and Goofy nodded as the boy tilted his head slightly, studying his appearance again. "Yeah! And Pikachu was a big help too!"

Pikachu bobbed its head up and down, grinning. "Pika!"

"But it destroyed our ship, and we don't know why!" Donald interrupted, looking angry again.

The boy looked at Pikachu with an annoyed glance, who sheepishly grinned up at him and quietly babbled, "Chu, pika pikachu, pika."

"Blue told us that we should help you out on your journey, so here we are! But he didn't say what your name is," Sora said and looked at the boy as he looked back up at them. "What's your name?"

Still he said nothing and pointed to his red cap.

"Your name is Hat?" Goofy guessed and the boy quickly shook his head, then pointed to his vest.

"It's Shirt?" Donald inquired and finally the boy looked annoyed again, pointing towards the vest again.

"Is it Vest?" Sora asked.

"What about Collar?"

Finally frustrated, the boy pointed to his throat and shook his head and as Goofy and Donald kept guessing what his name was, Sora felt something clicking in his mind and he made his right hand into a fist and gently hit it against his left palm. "Oh, I get it! You can't talk, can you?"

The boy nodded, relief obvious. Honestly, he'd never had this much trouble trying to tell people what his name was before. He then pointed to his hat again, towards the red part specifically, then pointed to his eyes and Pikachu's cheeks.

"Oh! Your name is a color!" Goofy said, smiling when the boy nodded.

"Just like Blue!" Donald exclaimed.

"It's Red isn't it?" Sora guessed and finally the boy nodded a final time. Sora smiled happily, offering a hand to shake. "Hi, Red. Nice to meet you."

Red smiled and shifted Pikachu into one arm to shake his hand. When they released each other's grasp, he turned, and all were startled to see Blue walking towards them and gave a slight wave. "Yo, Red! I was going to introduce you but you decided to get up at the crack of dawn again," he said and grinned as he approached. "I forgot to mention that he couldn't talk and only thought about it when I was almost asleep last night and forgot to tell you this morning."

Red rolled his eyes and set Pikachu onto his shoulder, and Sora saw the most bizarre thing ever: he watched his hands make rapid and strange movements and finally Blue rolled his eyes as well. "Whatever, Red."

"Wait, what was that?" Sora asked, causing a pair of confused looks to stare at him.

"You've never seen sign language before?" Blue asked and Red tilted his head to the side. "How else do you think Red talks?"

"That's handy," Goofy replied.

"What'd he say?" Sora asked.

Blue translated quickly and grumpily, "He called me a lazy and forgetful idiot." Red signed something else quickly and Pikachu cackled as Blue looked annoyed. "I'm not translating that." Red pouted, giving a _'Why not?'_ face.

Sora could only assume that Red had called Blue another name.

"Anyway, I'm gonna go now. Good luck on finding your friends." He pointed directly at Red, who blinked when the finger was in his face. "Red, The next time we battle, I'll win!" Blue snatched his hand back when Pikachu threatened to bite his finger and he huffed. "Smell you later, Red!" He gave a cocky grin and ran off as Red huffed but he waved anyway.

Sora, Donald and Goofy waved as well when he left and once he disappeared from around the corner, Donald looked up at Sora. "We need to go check on Chip and Dale, they're probably worried about us," he said.

"Yeah, they probably are," he admitted. "But I don't even remember the way back."

Pikachu jumped off of Red's shoulder. "Pika!" It pointed, starting to walk and Red immediately followed it.

"Seems like Pikachu knows the way!" Goofy said and the other two also followed.

X-X-X

Red stared at the ship that was before him. It was painted with extreme colors and honestly didn't look like something that could really fly. The inside smelled of smoke caused by an electric fire, something he was familiar with after all his travels with Pikachu. The cockpit was mostly cleaned up except for a few splotches of scorch marks from the electricity that had escaped the consoles.

He gave a hard look at Pikachu, who only shrugged and made a grumbling noise when Donald approached them. Sora and Goofy were speaking with the two chipmunks, trying to see what the best way would be for them to repair the ship. Seeing the look on Red's face, Donald said, "We landed here and we didn't see Pikachu run inside. Then afterwards, Chip and Dale said that Pikachu fried everything in here."

Red gave a sigh, then looked at Pikachu. It wasn't the first time it had caused any sort of trouble, but this was perhaps the worst mistake. Even though Pikachu seemed to acknowledge it, it didn't seem to care at all, looking up at them with the biggest eyes it could muster. Donald just looked irritated. "Don't give us those eyes!"

Pikachu turned to him and Red knew what it was about to do and quickly stepped back when it yelled, "PIKA!"

"Ahh!" Donald successfully withstood another Thundershock and glared followed by a shout of unintelligible words as he chased the mouse through the ship. Sora and the others turned towards the noise and Red sighed, letting Pikachu play its game when he walked over to Sora, Goofy and the chipmunks.

"Everything okay over there?" Sora asked and Red nodded.

"Chip and Dale say that they can fix the ship with what we have on board, but it's going to take some time," Goofy explained.

"So we're stuck here until they can fix it," Sora added and quickly noticed Red's apologetic look on his face. "It's okay, Red! We don't mind! Really! We can probably find the keyhole along the way!"

The boy tilted his head, a questioning look on his face.

"Oh, it's what I use the keyblade for, to seal the keyholes in all the worlds to stop the Heartless from coming through. Once I find it in this world then no more Heartless can come into the world!"

He blinked again but nodded slowly, understanding. Everything was making sense and he turned to Pikachu, hearing something shatter and rubbed his face, snapping loudly, the distinct sound even making Donald stop and look over. Pikachu made a face at Donald before he ran to his trainer, jumping up onto his shoulder obediently.

The four of them made their way out soon enough, and Red turned to them, a strange look on his face. Sora blinked, then smiled. "We'll go with you, Red. Blue told us all about Team Rocket and how you want to stop them, so we're going to help you!"

Red looked apprehensive, looking at Goofy and Donald as they both nodded and smiled.

"And I have a feeling that the Heartless are still somewhere in this world, so we're going to go with you to wherever you need to go!" Goofy said.

"Pika!" Pikachu smiled at them, gratefully accepting the help and looked at Red, who nodded at them. He wasn't used to anyone offering help against Team Rocket but he smiled and started walking away. Sora was confused when he stopped and threw another pokéball out.

The creature that appeared roared, fanning large wings and looked at Sora, Donald and Goofy with intelligent eyes, though it looked at Red as he patted his shoulder. "Wow! That's a cool dragon!" Sora said and blinked when Red rapidly shook his head. "What?"

Red started to look around for something and finally walked over to a stick on the ground, stabbing it into the ground multiple times and pointed to it when he was done. Donald waddled over. "It says, 'This is Charizard. He isn't a dragon.' But he looks like a dragon!"

Red huffed, the air escaping his nose and he wiped the dirt with his foot, beginning to write into it again—this time much longer—and Donald read off again once he was done. "'Charizard is a fire- and flying-type. We can use Fly to go back to Fuchsia City and travel to the Seafoam Islands, that is our next stop.'"

Sora looked up at Charizard as it nodded and lowered itself as Red jumped onto his back, offering his hand to Sora, smiling happily. Sora grinned and took his hand, watching Charizard jump into the air, swooping back down to grab Goofy while Donald jumped to catch Charizard's tail with a shout.

"To the Seafoam Islands!" Sora cried, his voice full of excitement.

X-X-X

Maleficent was beyond irritated, in fact she looked angry and didn't bother hiding it. The meddling keyblade wielder was here in this world, already making a mess of things and she couldn't help but to glare at anyone who met her gaze. On top of that, Giovanni was a difficult man that was stubborn as a rock. She _still_ hadn't fully convinced him to join her and she was tempted to use force at this point—it was clear he was not a man used to serving under anyone, much less someone who didn't even belong in this world.

She turned her eyes towards the man, who was currently in his chair again and Persian beside him as always, sleeping away peacefully. "It was a show of my power, and I will grant them to you with a simple promise that you will get rid of the keyblade wielder and his friends," she said.

"And yet you were so easily defeated by a child as well," he replied calmly, not immune to her instant anger. "Why would I take the help of someone else who can be defeated by a kid as well?"

She sat there, seething in her rage. How dare this fool of a man use her own words against her! She was nearly about to attack but after a brief moment of thought, it vanished, leaving her to cackle and successfully waking Persian. "Turn your problem into a Heartless."

He cocked a brow, remaining silent as the woman before him stood.

"Phantom is a Heartless that can possess certain objects and I am sure it was trying to do that to the boy. Other Heartless mindlessly gather various hearts, however there are a few special Heartless that can do more than just that. You could have had him in your control if Sora and his friends hadn't intervened. All I ask is that you get rid of them for me, and I will bestow upon you power." She smiled wickedly. "You turn your problem into a Heartless and you can control him then you will have nothing to worry about."

Giovanni paused at this, still sitting in his seat deep in thought. It was true the only _real_ opposition he'd ever faced was a single child, who not only managed to defeat him in Celadon City and ruin over half of Team Rocket's profit, but he'd managed to defeat him a second time within the Silph Co. building and get rid of the plans for the master ball creation. "Fine," he finally said and looked at her. "Give me this power and I will get rid of your keyblade problem."

Maleficent smiled again in delight, holding her arms to her sides and lifted the staff up off the ground as her form took on a green glow, growing with power by the second. Persian was up on its paws, hissing and snarling but Giovanni barely heard it as a murky shadow covered the room and he saw nothing but the thick black of the darkness.

X-X-X


	3. Freeze

**A/N:** Yay for chapter three! I am having loads of fun writing this crossover. I think I'm doing all right for a first crossover, lol. I remember thinking, 'Hey, let's throw KH and Pokemon together!' And when I was thinking about what should happen, which characters and what generation, I figured I should go with my favorite one and didn't want to write a too terribly long one, so I started it after the sixth badge.

Fun fact #1: Yes, I do try to write every day and most times I can write a full chapter in a day like this time. No, it doesn't always work out 'cause sometimes I'll stare at the computer screen with Microsoft Word up for hours (sometimes with a few words written, sometimes a blank page), or I'll write an entire chapter and deem it unworthy and hit the delete button (which happens more often than you think). I have a separate document with stuff that I did delete for each fanfic that I write, and sometimes I'll use stuff that I've written from one fanfic and put it into another. End fun fact #1! XD

 **haiku101:** Keep an eye on that little detail, but I won't tell you why you should :P There is a reason why he's mute in this one, buuut I won't spoil it lol. Thanks as always :D

* * *

 _Chapter 3: FREEZE_

X-X-X

The initial flight was a bit boring, to be honest. Sora could see it in Red's face, however, that he loved to be in the air, every second of it, and didn't seem to be bored for a second. Charizard was panting as they flew, not used to carrying so many people. Once they had arrived on a beach, Red got off of Charizard and tossed a pokéball into the water.

Once the blue turtle appeared, Red squatted to the sand and wrote into it with his finger quickly and stepped back when he was done. "Blastoise?" Goofy said and looked at the water pokemon as it nodded. "Nice to meetcha, Blastoise! I'm Goofy!"

Blastoise simply snorted, not interested as it turned around and Red smiled a bit, shrugging and patted Goofy's back, seeing that he was a bit disappointed. He let Charizard rest for a bit until he got onto Blastoise's shell, blinking when Sora joined him, then looked at Charizard as Goofy and Donald got back onto his back. Sora didn't notice it, but Red gave Charizard a look, quietly telling it to behave when in the air and the lizard gave a loud snort, jumping into the air once more.

After a few hours, it flew just above the water, still carrying Donald and Goofy while in the water, Blastoise swam just as quickly with Sora and Red on his shell and used the cannons on its shoulders to propel itself quicker through the ocean. It was the perfect day to travel, the water was calm and there was a slight breeze in the air that kept everyone cool even in the harsh sunlight.

Sora watched with wonder as he saw several other pokemon and Red had showed him the pokedex, how it scanned all the ones he saw and Red was laughing quietly at his amazement. Eventually they came to a series of rocks and shallower water, where Blastoise had to slow his pace down whereas Charizard kept up his pace, flying towards the largest rock, which also held a beach and an entrance to a cave.

Red directed Blastoise to follow with barely contained excitement. He'd heard all the stories his mother used to tell him, how the ice pokemon made their home inside of these beautiful, mysterious caves and that all humans really knew about them was that it was the oldest set of caverns in Kanto, even older than the Ruins of Alph. Charizard, Donald and Goofy were already waiting for them at the beach and Donald was staring at the rocks, unimpressed. Pikachu jumped off of Red's shoulder as soon as they were on land then stretched and sniffed the air, staring at the cave and tilted his head as Red, Sora, Donald and Goofy gathered together.

"So, these are the Seafoam Islands?" Sora inquired and Red nodded, smiling with excitement as he recalled Charizard and Blastoise.

"It's just a big set of giant rocks, though," Donald said skeptically then crossed his arms. "It doesn't look like much." Sora couldn't help but agree. They didn't know the reason why Red had wanted to come here and it wasn't like he could explain to them what his reason was but he didn't really mind. He glanced at Red as he stretched, happy to be standing again.

"Don't you want to beat those gyms, Red?" Goofy asked and earned a nod before tapping his jaw. "Seems to me there aren't any around here!"

Red pointed towards the cave entrance.

The others turned towards it and became silent as a slight breeze of cold air hit them.

A brief and collective thought hit the others: They weren't really going to go inside, were they?

Red only gave them a smile, already beginning to walk for it and Pikachu gave a pouting face, then saw Sora and Goofy followed without question or hesitation. After they had disappeared into the cave, a wave crashed into a rock nearby and Donald sighed, mumbling that he didn't like caves. He glanced at Pikachu and both huffed their own dislike for each other and turned away from each other before running after them.

X-X-X

It didn't take very long to realize that this cave was cold.

 _Very_ cold.

They had traveled down only a floor below when they felt the biting chill against their skin, fur or feathers and even though they whined about it, they kept going. Red didn't seem to have any intentions on going back up any time soon, after all. He pointed out some of the other pokemon in the cave, using his pokedex to show off the Seel, Cloyster and occasional Dewgong.

Sora briefly shivered and looked around, watching as a Zubat screeched at them in annoyance and flew off, probably to get to someplace quieter and sleep again. Donald seemed to have an argument with Pikachu and even though the little mouse couldn't speak normally, it was almost like it was winning but they were pretty much ignored. Goofy commented on the strange stalactites and stalagmites that formed throughout the cave and how a strange light reflected off of the icy walls surface.

Sora smiled at the sheer beauty of the cave and stopped when there was a slight opening in the wall, a crevice that revealed a large body of water that was partially frozen. "Whoa…" he muttered, the cold forgotten.

Red was beside him, smiling and pointed to it. It took a minute for Sora to understand that he wanted to go down there and when he did, he gave his own grin and nodded. "Yeah, we can go down there!" He turned around. "Goofy, Donald, we have to—Goofy? Donald? Guys?"

Red blinked and turned, seeing Pikachu sitting on the ground and it shrugged, telling them that it had no idea where they went. He looked around the cave, seeing multiple openings ahead of them and scowled. Goofy and Donald could have gone down any of them unintentionally and at this rate, they could already be lost. Sora looked worried, suddenly shouting, "GOOFY! DONALD! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Red jumped at the sheer volume. He didn't know his new friend could be so loud.

Sora gave a short laugh. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He sighed when he didn't receive a reply. "Come on, let's go look for them." He started down one of the tunnels and Red followed, feeling Pikachu jumping onto his shoulder quickly but it didn't stop there and it caused him to become instantly confused as he watched it. Pikachu jumped from his shoulder onto Sora's head—who voiced his own confusion—and from there, took one last leap into the air but Red noticed that its tail had taken a silver tinge. He took Sora's arm and pulled him back as Pikachu used Iron Tail, and a strange bat fell to the ground.

When it vanished into that strange light, Red knew that this place was also full of those creatures and scowled to himself, seeing many more swoop down from the ceiling. Sora summoned the keyblade, looking up as they started to attack. "Uh-oh," he muttered. "These Heartless are called Hook Bats. They aren't that strong alone, but there's a lot of them."

He saw Pikachu land in front of them, its cheeks sparking and then he turned, hearing another noise but Red was already throwing another pokéball to counter the Hover Ghost—and he was startled to see Eevee appear. Somehow, though, this one seemed a bit different. "I thought Eevee was Blue's pokemon," he said, slashing at the Hook Bats that flew down to them.

Red shook his head as he directed Pikachu to use Thunderbolt and Eevee to use Shadow Ball. Shadow Ball went first and Pikachu combined the Thunderbolt to the ball, lacing it with electricity just before it hit the floating Heartless. Sora slashed at a second Hover Ghost, yelping when it countered almost instantly with its own claws. He landed on the ground hard and Red looked at him with concern but it was quickly pushed aside when he simply jumped right back up expertly even as the Hover Ghost flew straight for him again. Red's eyes widened once he saw fire escape the keyblade and dance around Sora briefly and the Heartless disappeared.

He turned his attention back to Pikachu, hearing it cry out as the area behind them was cleared. When he turned, Sora disposed of the last of the Hook Bats and all was silent again. "Whew," he said and looked at Red. "What?" He saw Red hesitate and moved his arms around himself and pointed to the keyblade. "Huh?"

Red smacked his face against his hand and Pikachu laughed, holding its sides as Eevee joined in its cackling.

He tried again but Sora still didn't get it and he blinked as Pikachu walked forward and laid down on the ground on its back in front of Sora. He jumped up similar to how Sora did and stuck its paw out, slashing the air with an imaginary sword with the occasional, "Pi! Pi!" Pikachu made a sound, then quickly turned around, making the face of a Heartless as best as it could and clutched its chest and dramatically fell again before returning to its paws. Sora applauded his show, finally grasping the question Red wanted to ask.

"You want to know what that fire was, huh?" Red couldn't help but to roll his eyes. He didn't know it took a show and Pikachu of all things could make him understand. "That was magic."

Red blinked a few times. Magic? He gave him a dubious look, one that clearly said, _Really?_ Sora understood instantly as he laughed.

"Magic is real, I promise! What I used was Fira, it's a step up from the Fire spell, only a little more powerful. I don't use it much, but it's handy sometimes. Donald and I can use lots of spells, but he's better at it than I am."

He slowly nodded. He didn't quite get it, but he supposed if they did come from another world, that Goofy and Donald indeed weren't pokemon and that there was a ship that looked too bulky to even fly, magic could exist too. The keyblade disappeared and Sora turned, looking at the tunnel they were in when it started descending deeper into the ground.

"Speaking of Donald, let's keep going. If there are Heartless around, there's no doubt that they're fighting here too." He started walking, crossing his arms in thought. "But I wonder why they're here, there's no hearts for them to take."

Red shrugged. He hadn't any idea either. Eevee and Pikachu walked behind of him and Sora slowed his pace so he could walk beside Red. "So, why do you have Eevee? Isn't Eevee Blue's pokemon?"

He shook his head and held up two fingers.

"Two?"

He nodded. Two turned into one and he pointed towards Eevee and then to himself. He held up one finger again and pointed towards the blue water below, which was coming closer as they reached the water level.

"So there are two Eevees. One is yours and one is Blue's?"

He nodded and Sora smiled, proud that he'd guessed correctly the first time.

Eevee puffed its chest out proudly. "Vui!"

Sora blinked and bent down a little with a smile as he scratched its head, who seemed to enjoy the attention. "You're a cute little guy—"

At that moment, Eevee's eyes narrowed and it jumped back a little. "Vee!" it snapped, puffing its cheeks out a little. When he looked over, Sora saw that Red was laughing silently, smiling as Pikachu shook its head. "Vee, eev, eevee vui!"

"W-what?" Sora stammered.

Pikachu tugged on his pant leg again and pointed to Red and Sora, then to himself. "Chu."

"You're a boy?"

Pikachu nodded and he shook his head when he pointed to Eevee. "Pika, pi pi, pikachu chu."

"Oh.. Oh!" He smiled and looked at Eevee again. "You're a girl, aren't you?"

"Vui." Eevee nodded.

He laughed, seeing her satisfied expression. "You're still cute, Eevee." He looked over at Pikachu when he stood in front of Eevee and started chattering as well, much to her displeasure. "You too, Pikachu."

Red was still smiling, glad to see that his pokemon liked Sora—even if a certain yellow one didn't like one of their other friends. Soon they had reached one of the smaller islands in the water-filled cave and he shivered again involuntarily. For some reason, this level seemed to be far colder than the others above. He noticed Sora rub his arms and he looked up. The ceiling and walls were far too close to the water for Charizard to fly through and looked back at the calm pool ahead of them. He then tossed Blastoise's pokéball, who immediately got into the water, not finding any problem with the chill.

Sora watched as Red picked Eevee up and Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder and followed him onto Blastoise's shell, remaining standing on the shell once he spotted another Hook Bat fly down. "Seems like we're not the only ones down here!" he said and summoned the keyblade one more time.

Pikachu would join Sora occasionally, striking down multiple Hook Bats and they all stopped when there was a loud screech, the ear-piercing sound causing them to cover their ears. When it was gone, Red looked at Sora, clearly asking what that was.

Sora shook his head. "I dunno," he said quietly and Red directed Blastoise to follow the sound from where it had come from.

A second screech was heard, much louder this time and Red quickly looked to the side, seeing a few rocks fall into the water and Sora gulped. He didn't want to be stuck in a cave-in and felt Blastoise move a bit faster in its nervousness. They didn't have to travel much farther to see the cause, but Sora heard Red give a sharp intake of air and saw his eyes widen at the sight before them.

A large, blue bird was there, using its claws and shoved several Soldiers into the water and flapped its wings a few times, causing a few of the smaller Heartless to lose their grip on the ground and were blasted away by the wind. "That's not a Heartless!" Sora said and Red shook his head. "That's a pokemon?!"

Red quickly fumbled for the pokedex, scanning the creature and Sora looked at it momentarily and then at the bird ahead when Red put the device away into his backpack again. "Articuno?"

" _Leave!"_ a feminine voice shouted, followed by a shrill cry as the bird sent a beam of ice into several Heartless that were attacking it. _"I said leave, you foolish creatures!"_

"We have to help Articuno!" Sora said and rose his keyblade. "Thunder!" A yellow ball appeared at the top of the keyblade and one of the soldiers was hit and vanquished immediately, the heart floating up and disappearing. Now aware that there were others, Articuno shot its eyes towards them, looking angry as it screeched at them. As soon as he saw that the strange ice attack was being charged at them, Sora yelped as Blastoise quickly avoided it. "Don't attack us! We're trying to help you!"

" _Then prove it and get rid of these creatures!"_ the bird snapped at him.

Red snapped his fingers and Blastoise tucked its head in a bit. Sora blinked when Red took his arm in a firm grip then saw that Pikachu and Eevee were directly in front of him. "What are y—ahh!" Blastoise suddenly shot forward with speed and he'd nearly fallen into the water if it hadn't been for Red's arm holding onto him tightly.

Red had directed Blastoise to use Skull Bash on one of the heartless that was trying to get out of the water and once it disappeared, they all jumped off its back while Red let Eevee and Pikachu attack the various Heartless around the area. Sora leaped up into the air, grabbing one of the hooks of a Hook Bat, using it to stay in the air and get rid of a couple of the Heartless with a quick few slashes. He let go of the one he held onto and used the keyblade to dispose of that one as well.

Red turned to Articuno when he heard it cry out with sudden pain and heard it collapse. He saw the cause of its pain floating in the air, a large, blue Heartless that held a long staff and seemed to dance back and forth in the air. He and Sora ran to Articuno to protect it as it struggled to get back up and Red snapped his fingers. Pikachu used Thunderbolt against it, though he was starting to pant as he grew tired and Sora frowned, also seeing Eevee panting. "That's a Blizzard Lord," he said, watching it carefully. "It isn't too powerful, just be careful of its magic, it can freeze you in place." He then looked around, seeing a few Shadows and Soldiers appear and he looked at Red as he grinned. "I'll take care of the Blizzard Lord, and you take care of the little ones?"

Red nodded and watched as the Blizzard Lord started to cast magic, glad that they all jumped out of the way of the attack. It flew down, raising its long staff and swung it as hard as it could though Sora instantly blocked it with a loud grunt, using both hands and Red directed Blastoise to use Water Pulse against it while Pikachu and Eevee attacked the other Heartless. The Blizzard Lord didn't make a sound as it was flown back by the sheer force of the attacks and it raised its staff again, this time sending large shards of ice at them.

Blastoise didn't wait for another command from Red, knowing he was distracted with trying to direct Pikachu and Eevee against the other Heartless, and used Water Pulse. The attack hit an ice crystal that nearly hit Articuno and sent another Water Pulse for the Blizzard Lord and caused it to stumble while Sora slammed his keyblade onto it. Sora smiled at Blastoise, grateful for the distraction. "Thanks, Blastoise!" he shouted, raising his keyblade to cast Fira again.

The Blizzard Lord took in a deep breath, its already large stomach growing bigger as it took in a deep breath and blew the ice on the entire rock. Pikachu and Eevee gave their own yelps of surprise while Red and Sora covered their faces.

While it didn't freeze him in place, Red knew that the hair that poked out of his hair was frosted over and he shivered, teeth chattering as he continued to concentrate on the battle, looking at Blastoise. He saw that the turtle was in front of Sora and released a Protect then nodded to him. Blastoise knew to stay with Sora to continue to help him fight the boss and gave his own nod before jumping up and entered his own shell, spinning rapidly. He shot past Sora and hit the Heartless with Rapid Spin just before it could cast another ice spell and Sora followed it with another Thundara, continuing their brutal attack against it.

Red stood in front of Articuno, hearing Eevee cry out for him and looked behind him, eyes widening when he saw a Soldier leap for him and knew there wouldn't be enough time for him to get out of the way before it hit. He was startled to see a powerful Ice Beam hit it and successfully destroy it and looked up to see Articuno up again, looking rather proud it had gotten rid of it. He smiled and nodded his thanks, then turned to Sora and Blastoise, seeing the Blizzard Lord suddenly explode into four smaller Heartless. However, all they did was hop around helplessly as Sora finished them off quickly.

Eevee flopped onto his feet, exhausted and he smiled, returning it and turned to the side as Sora walked to him, giving Blastoise a fist-bump on the way. Once he was in front of him, he smiled as well. "Blastoise is powerful, he's pretty cool."

"Blas!" Blastoise said proudly.

Red nodded in agreement and patted Blastoise's arm when the pokemon returned to his side. He and Sora then turned to Articuno, who was staring at them with its eyes locked on Red. "Are you okay, Articuno?" Sora asked.

It slowly nodded. _"Yes. I am fine,"_ its voice said softly and didn't say anything about their shock to its voice, still staring at Red. _"There is… something about you that I cannot place."_

Red frowned in confusion as Pikachu tilted his head, jumping up onto his shoulder.

Sora shook his head. "Doesn't matter if there's something off about Red or not, but we did save you from those Heartless," he said instead and Articuno tore its eyes from Red to Sora, finally looking between them.

" _That you did. You call them the Heartless?"_

Sora nodded. "Yes. They're creatures that go after people's hearts. I'm trying to stop them and I'm helping Red on his journey and become the best pokemon trainer." Red's face flushed in a little embarrassment and looked up when he heard soft laughter come from Articuno.

It looked at Red again, lowering itself so that its beak was leveled with his chest. _"I can sense Zapdos has also aligned himself with you. You have gained the trust of thunder. You have saved the beauty of ice. I shall join you as well, Trainer Red."_

Red smiled and nodded, reaching into his backpack and pulled out a new pokéball and tapped it against Articuno's beak. Sora watched in wonder when Articuno took on a bright white glow and it was sucked into the sphere, clicking almost instantly. Overjoyed, Red smiled again and Pikachu voice his own happiness while Blastoise seemed to catch it quickly, hugging his trainer from behind and Red looked up, patting his claws then once released, he put the pokéball into his pocket and quickly started making a few motions with his hands but stopped, blushing again.

Sora laughed. "You don't have to be embarrassed, Red. I'll learn sign language someday, but you seem really happy," he said and Red bobbed his head up and down. "Is it because Articuno wanted to become your pokemon?" Again he nodded. "Articuno said something about Zapdos. Is that another bird?"

Pikachu was the one who answered, then pointed to his cheeks when they started sparking. "Pika!"

"Zapdos is another electric type?"

Happy, Pikachu nodded again and held up one of his little fingers and flapped his arms up and down quickly.

"One more? There's another bird?"

Red smiled again and nodded as he followed Blastoise to the water.

X-X-X

Sora and Red had searched everywhere in the cave for Donald and Goofy, but they were nowhere to be found. Sora briefly feared that they had been defeated by the Heartless but pushed that thought aside and told himself that they were strong and could defeat any Heartless thrown at them. As they returned to the first floor, he didn't have to worry anymore and smiled once he heard Goofy's recognizable yell. He quickly spotted Goofy and Donald running as fast as they could out of one of the other tunnels towards the sunlight from a single Zubat.

Red was laughing again, and although no sound came from his throat, it was still contagious and Sora started to laugh as well as the Zubat scared the intruders away and finally returned to wherever it had come from. They also exited the cave as Donald and Goofy planted themselves on the sand, panting and they were instantly hugging the two boys, overjoyed that they finally found them again. Donald even tried to hug Pikachu, but the little mouse instantly shocked him with a mischievous laugh.

Why the Heartless had even come to this island and attacked Articuno was still a mystery, but it was a mystery that none of them worried about as Red wrote in the sand their next destination, writing that it was also a place that held his next badge.

Cinnabar Island.

X-X-X


	4. Mansion

**A/N:** Next chapter is up! 4/11 chapters completed.

 **haiku101:** I know it was easy, but in my playthru of FireRed, I caught Articuno with one ultra ball. I got lucky too :P

 **Guest:** Thanks :) And as for _Misadventures_ , I'm still working on it. I got stuck on the next chapter but I figured out a way to transition from a scene lol. It'll be up hopefully by this Sunday.

* * *

 _Chapter 4: MANSION_

X-X-X

The sand on this island was so packed together it felt more like a sidewalk than a beach on an island in the middle of the ocean. Cinnabar Island was a hot and humid area—especially in the middle of the day like this. The beach was still full of people walking around having fun and there were various food and drink stands all around the beach.

A few people turned to look at the oddball group that came from the ocean but went about their business as Charizard landed and let Goofy and Donald slide off his back. Sora stretched and paused, looking around the new scenery. "This place is hotter than the Destiny Islands," he mumbled. Even though it was hotter, the island held a peaceful air about it that seemed to relax all its inhabitants even in the brutal temperature. He turned towards Red when he jumped off of Blastoise's back. "Have you ever been here?"

Red shook his head, turning to face the ocean they'd just crossed and craned his neck up to look at the mountain beside him. With the way it was shaped, he guessed it was also a volcano, dormant in the open ocean. Charizard made a grumbling noise and he looked up at the lizard, smiling a bit as he patted his neck as Goofy looked at the town as well. "It seems like a nice place here!" he mentioned.

"Not a single Heartless in sight," Donald added with a relieved nod.

Sora suddenly smiled and spun to Red so fast, the trainer was surprised he didn't lose his balance and fall flat on his face. Even Charizard was staring at Sora with mild amusement. "So that means we can watch you get the badge, right?! We get to see our first pokemon battle?"

Charizard roared to confirm it and Red only smiled before he recalled his two pokemon, smiling as Pikachu darted down the beach and left excited paw prints up and down the sand.

"All right! I can't wait!" Red gave a silent laugh, nodding as he clipped the pokéballs onto his belt.

Sora watched it stop in front of a Krabby, sniffing curiously as if it had never seen one either. _That has bad idea written all over it,_ he thought. He smiled as Red gave a sigh, clearly thinking the same thing and began to jog over before Pikachu could get pinched, then turned back to the ocean.

A somber feeling washed into him, remembering a similar sight and watching the ocean more than a few times with Riku and Kairi. He wanted to find them, but before he could get too engrossed in his thoughts, he noticed Donald and Goofy come to his side with the latter immediately smiling again. "Wow," Donald said, watching the calm ocean waves lap against the beach in a repeated fashion.

"Yeah. I know," Sora said. "No matter how many times I see it, the ocean seems like it's different every time."

"Mm, I guess so," Goofy replied. "The ocean is a pretty big area, so of course it's gonna be different."

"Especially since we're on another world," Donald added while Sora nodded. They all turned when they heard Pikachu give a yell of pain and Red finally reached the small pokemon, watching Pikachu flail its arm rapidly to try and get the Krabby's pincer off. Krabby was flung off into the water with a quiet _blip_ and Red smiled as the electric mouse immediately started to whine to his trainer and tried to nurse his arm. Red knelt beside him and took his paw with one hand as the other took off his backpack, digging through it to look for a potion.

He briefly looked up as Sora, Donald and Goofy approached and when he saw the keyblade appear, he was immediately wary, looking around for the potential enemy they spotted. He did find it strange that Goofy and Donald didn't have their own weapons brandished but paused when Sora smiled. "Don't worry, Red, I can fix that," he said and pointed the keyblade towards Pikachu. "Cure!"

Red looked at Pikachu with awe when a strange green light appeared just above its head and seemed to douse Pikachu with a dim light. Sora smiled and let the keyblade disappear, looking around to make sure no one else saw it and happy that no one had, he glanced at Pikachu, who looked confused but smiled as he moved his arm up and down a few times. "Pika!" he said happily, jumping to Sora's shoulder and rewarded him with an extremely light Thundershock.

"Ow!" Sora made a face as Pikachu smiled happily and jumped back to the ground as Goofy laughed and Red smiled.

"I think that means 'thank you,'" Goofy said and looked at Red when he nodded. "Were you gonna help Pikachu too?"

He nodded again while Pikachu made a face. "Pi," he said with clear disgust. Apparently it was something that he didn't like.

"How do you heal him without a Cure spell?" Donald asked curiously. Magic was his specialty, after all.

Red dug through his backpack again and pulled out a strange little red and orange object, showing it to them. Sora tilted his head a little. "A spray bottle?" he asked and Red shrugged, inching his index finger and thumb close together, though they didn't touch. "Something like that?"

"What's it called?"

Red bent down to the sand, brushing off sand from his finger when he was done writing. _Super Potion,_ it read.

"That's a weird potion," Donald said, crossing his arms and tapped his foot impatiently while Red pointed to Pikachu.

"It only works on Pikachu?" Sora guessed.

"Pika, pi!" Pikachu pointed to himself and then farther down the beach where a girl and her orange puppy were playing fetch. He then pointed towards the other pokéballs that rested on Red's hips. "Chu, chu, pika."

"It works on all pokemon?"

Red nodded and stood, putting the potion away and zipped it up. He then sauntered up a slight hill and Pikachu followed loyally and pointed, causing the other three to become immediately curious. Sora ran after him, smiling as soon as he saw the town in front of them, seeing a market near the beach and several other buildings, though the one Red had his eyes on was a large building near the base of the tall mountain. Even from here, Sora could read the sign on the front of it, one with clear, bold letters that said _GYM_.

Goofy had to squint to see but he smiled. "Hey, it's that there gym thing!"

"Yeah! It's what we came here for, so let's go!" Donald said and started walking forward.

Red and Sora quickly followed them. Sora wanted to stick back and look at all the stands but even Red was impatient, pushing him out of the area so they could get going. Besides, it was possible that Blue had already beaten the gym. Knowing him, he was probably already halfway to Pallet Town by now.

After they passed the initial barrage of people, they avoided taking the busier streets for the most part however just before they reached the gym, Pikachu noticed something strange about a rather large house not too far from the gym. He quickly caught up with Red, tugging his pants and Red blinked, stopping and looked at him. "Pika," he said and pointed towards the building.

"What's wrong?" Sora asked, coming back to the duo with Goofy and Donald.

"Pika!" Pikachu said a little louder that time, pointing again towards the mansion. He let go of Red's pant leg and ran for it and instantly his trainer was running after him.

"But what about the gym!" Donald cried. When he realized his cry went ignored, he signed and ran after his friends.

Red panted when they were close to the three-story mansion and slowed to a stop to wait for the others to catch up. From farther away, it looked like a normal house—but once he got closer he could see the old, worn fence and a few broken windows. The lawn in front was nearly as brown as the dirt and the roof had seen better days as well, beaten by extreme weather.

Honestly, it looked haunted.

He gulped and stepped through the old iron gates, his shoes crunching against the dry grass. The front door was wide enough to have two doors, and it was possible there _had_ been two doors, though there was one missing and from here, he could see the inside was just as ruined as the inside. To him, it held the same aura the pokemon tower held.

He looked behind him when he heard the others arrive with Donald coming in last. Sora looked up at it as well and heard Goofy gulp. "This place is kinda reminds me of Halloween Town. It's creepy," he said to Sora. "Why does Red hafta go into scary caves and houses?"

Red couldn't help but to smile again and started walking forward with Pikachu once again on his shoulder.

"He's got a sense of adventure! Come on, guys!" Sora said and walked as well. He could hear Donald and Goofy voice their own nervous opinions but he ignored them, looking around as soon as he was inside. He made a slight face when a musky smell hit his nose, though he kept going anyway, knowing he would get used to it shortly. There were broken pillars all along the torn carpet, piles of dirt and rock in one corner of the room and an eerie light from the sun entered the entry hall, letting them see the dust that flew in the air.

Red was looking at the walls and various outlines of where pictures had been hanging before turning his attention to the others. They each scattered through the main hall, though Donald was inspecting a statue and pressed something inside its mouth. Each of them stopped what they were doing and looked around, hearing a loud, strange clicking noise. "What was that?" Sora asked immediately.

"What do you think that mighta been?" Goofy asked.

"I didn't break anything!" Donald said sharply.

"We didn't say you did, Donald," Sora replied.

Red shrugged and Pikachu tilted his own head curiously, going to where Donald was with the statue and inspected it momentarily before looking up at the duck. "Pika, pi, pi!"

Donald seemed to understand immediately and turned to the others. "We should look for other statues with these switches," he said as Pikachu looked up at Sora and Red as they also approached.

"Good idea," Sora agreed. He looked around and started walking up the set of stairs, going carefully when each step creaked loudly underneath his weight. The others were just as careful and as soon as they reached the second floor, they were curiously inspecting the various items that were cluttered around the area—all the while avoiding the completely broken floors and walls—half of the second floor looked like it was rotting through and could fall apart at any time.

They explored the second and third floors rather quickly, finding a couple more statues with the buttons inside and once satisfied they had found all of the strange buttons, they made their way towards the back of the first floor. Sora led the way down, cautiously and once he reached the last step, he was glad to see that at least the basement still looked like it was well-taken care of. "Maybe this is what the mansion used to look like a long time ago," he said as he walked forward.

"Kinda strange though," Goofy replied as he walked around curiously.

"Oh well, at least we're down here."

Red looked down the hall, heading for it. There was an opening in the wall that had metal beams on either side, quite possibly having been the source of all the clicking when they pressed the buttons. In the strange room, a few old computers were on the back wall, though they were all off, as if they had been off for years with all the dust that was in the room. He sneezed and looked behind as the others also came in to inspect.

Sora was the first who noticed an open book on the table and read it quickly. "Huh," he said.

"What?" Donald asked, going to him, trying to peer over the table. Red and Goofy also looked curious, both inspecting the strange computers.

Sora picked it up. "It's a journal." He turned the page, seeing that it was empty after and then went back to the previous page. " 'July fifth, Guyana, South America: A new pokemon was discovered in the deep jungle.' That's kind of cool."

"A new pokemon? That sounds exciting!" Goofy said cheerfully and Red agreed immediately.

"What else does it say?" Donald pressured.

" 'July tenth: We christened the newly discovered pokemon, Mew.' "

Red's eyes must've been as wide as saucers, since the others were staring at him. He blushed out of embarrassment as Pikachu looked up at him curiously as he rubbed the back of his head to try and hide it.

"You know what Mew is, Red?" Goofy asked and Red nodded.

"It must be super old, then," Sora added and earned a second nod. He turned back to the journal again as Red removed his hand. " 'February sixth: Mew gave birth. We named the newborn Mewtwo.' " He turned his eyes to the bottom of the page, looking like it had been written quickly. "There's one more. 'September first: Mewtwo is far too powerful. We have failed to curb its vicious tendencies…' That's it." He shuddered to think about what that meant.

Sora, Donald and Goofy looked between each other and then at Red. He looked like he was deep in thought, as if he were trying to remember something but didn't even bother trying to tell the others that he was leaving. He figured the action would speak loudly enough for him. When he was gone, Donald looked up at Sora. "What's the matter with him?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm going to go follow him." He jogged out and up the stairs, seeing that Red was already leaving the mansion. "Hey, wait up, Red!" He ran again, hearing Donald and Goofy right behind him. By the time he was outside, Red had stopped at the old gates, still looking troubled. "You okay?"

Red gave a short nod, but he waved for them to follow, going for the beach behind the mansion. Sora eagerly followed and watched as Red stopped as soon as they were on the sand, he was kneeling on the sand, writing into it as quickly as he could. _I have heard of Mew before, I thought it was just a legend. Mewtwo is new to me, but it sounds powerful so I need to train,_ he wrote, looking up when he was done.

"Yeah, it does," Sora replied and smiled. "But we can help you out if you want us to!"

Red shrugged and looked at the sand again, starting to write once more. _Are you sure you'll be here that long? What about your ship?_

"I almost forgot about the ship," Goofy admitted and Donald nodded.

"It's probably fixed by now, but we haven't found the keyhole yet so we still have to look for that." He then looked at Red, who still kneeled in the sand while Pikachu was playing in it again beside them. "Plus, we promised that we'd help get rid of Team Rocket. So you're stuck with us for a while longer, Red!"

Red smiled. _Thank you._

Sora laughed. "Don't mention it!" He sat down in the sand as well, almost relieved to finally be off his feet. "So, if you have Articuno, does that mean you still have to train? What about Zapdos and the other bird? Won't they be able to help you find Mew and Mewtwo?"

Red shook his head and looked at the sand again. _Zapdos was difficult to catch. Articuno only agreed to come so easily because we helped it from the Heartless. Moltres is somewhere out there so I still have to catch it, too._

"So that's what it's called! Moltres!" Goofy said.

"Even so, can't you just use those two?" Donald questioned.

 _Mewtwo sounds like a pokemon that will be the most difficult to catch if it's known as 'vicious.'_ Red wrote something else, then looked at Pikachu, smiling as the others read. _I'm going to use my team, we've beaten everything else so far._ Then he paused and looked back at Pikachu as he yawned; Red wrote something else. _I need to buy more pokéballs, it took a million of them to catch Zapdos. I was really lucky with Articuno._

Sora stood up quickly and caused Red to look up as he reached into his pocket. "Speaking of pokéballs, I completely forgot to give this to Blue, so I guess it's yours now, Red!" He smiled and pulled out the strange purple pokéball and handed it to Red, who took it gently. "We found it in Saffron City."

Red stared at it a little more before nodding in thanks and put it into his backpack quickly before he stood and brushed the sand off of himself. He'd probably find out what kind of pokéball that was later.

Pikachu jumped out of his arms when he took the five other pokéballs into his hand, tossing them all in front of them and smiled as the rest of the team appeared. Recognizing them, Eevee instantly ran to Sora, Donald and Goofy, happily chattering away and caused Sora to laugh as Goofy picked her up to pet her. Red could hear Eevee making sounds of delight as Venusaur and Snorlax looked wary of the newcomers.

Sora looked over at Red as he pulled out his pokedex, showing it to him. "Snorlax and Venusaur," he said to himself and Red nodded before putting the pokedex away. The blue-eyed boy smiled again at the pokemon, waving. "Hi, Snorlax! Hi, Venusaur! My name's Sora!" He motioned towards the other two. "Over there, that's Donald and that's Goofy."

Snorlax made a grumbling noise in greeting while Venusaur extended a vine for Sora to shake.

Red went to the sand again, then stood when he was done. _We need to train. You three can watch if you want. I won't challenge the gym until tomorrow._

Sora nodded. "We can watch, that's fine. It'll be nice to get to relax."

Red smiled and then walked off towards his pokemon. Eevee jumped from Goofy's arms to run to Red, who was pairing them up. Sora watched with wonder as Red let them battle each other one at a time, and it seemed like they were holding back just enough so that they wouldn't hurt each other, and every time he snapped, he would stop them and try to adjust them and show them what he wanted them to do.

"They seem like they really like him," Goofy mentioned, chuckling when Venusaur nudged him, nearly knocking the boy over.

"Yeah, they do. I'm excited for tomorrow's match as well," Sora replied as Red snapped again, letting Eevee and Blastoise battle one more time. "I bet they are too."

Donald was watching and then he blinked. "How do they know what to do?" he asked curiously. "Blue was telling his Eevee what to do in Saffron, right?"

"Now that you mention it, I have no idea," Sora replied and looked at Red instead of the pokemon. He then smiled, seeing his hands moving as he looked back and forth between his pokemon. "Well, there's your answer, Donald!"

"What? I don't see anything!" Donald replied, growing frustration shortly.

Sora and Goofy laughed, and their laughter and Donald's irritated words caught the attention of the trainer and his pokemon, who all stared in confusion but after a few seconds, they decided to ignore them again in favor of perfecting their moves and combinations.

X-X-X

They had spent the night in the pokemon center on the island and woke up bright and early. Red was already awake, eating one of the free breakfasts in the lobby as Pikachu munched on a slice of apple with his trainer. Sora, Donald and Goofy appeared downstairs by eight in the morning with bright smiles and gratefully accepted the meals a Chansey handed to them as they sat down at the table with Red and Pikachu.

After their quick breakfast, they were outside and headed for the gym. Red looked ready and briefly looked at the text underneath the gym sign. "So the leader's name is Blaine?" Donald said and Red nodded, then pointed to the slogan. "'The Hotheaded Quiz Master.' What's that supposed to mean?"

"Maybe it's just a saying, come on! Let's go in!" Sora said eagerly and looked at Red when he blinked, trying to open the door. After trying again, Red looked confused.

Why was the gym locked up? It should be open, right?

He looked up at the door and stepped back, confused. Once the keyblade appeared in Sora's hand, he tilted his head a little. "Watch this," Sora said and pointed the keyblade towards the doors.

There was a distinct _click_ and the door opened a little. Red nodded in thanks. That was handy, indeed. As soon as he opened the door, they winced at the intense heat that suddenly hit them and Sora looked around. It looked pretty plain on the inside, though at the end of the room, there was a screen and a door, no doubt that was locked. "This… is a gym?" he asked dubiously.

Red shrugged and they all turned as a man approached, grinning at them all. "Well, challengers!" He paused. "How did you get it? We lost the keys a while ago…"

The four friends looked between each other and shrugged.

The man didn't seem to care after that, instead smiled again. "How many are challenging today?"

"Only one," Goofy replied, motioning to Red, who rose his hand half-way up.

"All right, then. You three, there are benches at the arena when you meet Blaine. You aren't allowed to interfere with the match and you aren't allowed to help answer questions."

"Questions?" Sora asked.

The man pointed to the computer screen against the wall. "It's a pretty simple gym. Answer the questions, you can move onto the next room. If you guess wrong, you have to battle the trainer in the room. If you guess right, you can move on. Deal?"

Red nodded, quickly going for the screen and rolled his eyes when he read the question and clicked 'YES.' Of course Caterpie evolved into Metapod. He looked up as the door opened and they walked through, where another trainer stood inside, looking bored but said nothing.

He approached the screen and clicked a button. Last he'd heard, there were only eight certified gyms. He moved on from one room to the next, not having to battle a single trainer and eventually reached the end, where an older man in a lab coat was in the back of the arena, then turned. "Oh-ho!" he said and stood. "You must be smart to get through all of those without having to battle anyone!"

Red shrugged. The questions were unbearably easy. Sora, Donald and Goofy stared at the arena, in awe of the size and watched as Red walked forward, Pikachu at his side. The yellow mouse looked thrilled and ready to battle the gym leader, who went to the other side of the arena. Sora smiled, sensing the excitement and watched as Blaine took a pokéball into his hand.

He and Red were confused when the man started laughing, both of them staring at him. "Hah! I'm Blaine, the leader of the Cinnabar Gym! My fiery pokemon will incinerate all challengers! Hah! You better have a burn heal!"

Red made a face. He wasn't sure whether to laugh at the horrible joke the old man said or not. Blaine threw a pokéball, and once the small puppy pokemon was out, it barked, baring its teeth as Pikachu jumped forward, cheeks sparking with a challenging, "Pika pi!"

"Wow, our first real pokemon battle!" Sora whispered excitedly, looking at Donald and Goofy then turned his attention back to the field.

"The challenger may have the first move," Blaine invited.

Pikachu wasted no time and started to move, its body glowing slightly as it burst forward with speed using Quick Attack.

Blaine smiled from behind the moustache. "This will be fun!" He rose an arm. "Growlithe, let's begin with Take Down!"

The two pokemon met in the middle and the battle began.

X-X-X


	5. Green

**A/N:** 5/11 chapters completed!

 **haiku101:** I... I've never caught a shiny. Unless you count the red Gyarados in Gold/Silver lol

* * *

 _Chapter 5: GREEN_

X-X-X

"No, Ponyta!" Blaine cried, seeing the fiery horse finally collapse.

Sora watched the battle with his full attention, smiling brightly. Extremely strong attacks had been sent flying back and forth at such a quick pace, it was difficult to keep up with but in the end, it was a little yellow mouse that defeated two out of four pokemon. Pikachu alone had taken down Growlithe using its speed alone and now Ponyta with ease, but he was panting, growing tired and burned from one of Ponyta's vicious Fire Blasts. Sora smiled, cheering Pikachu on as Blaine threw a third pokéball, grinning.

"Let's see your Pikachu shock its way out of this one!"

Red made an annoyed face that Blaine ignored, tired of the puns and nearly smacked his own face again as Pikachu groaned. In the back, he could hear Goofy laughing like a little kid, completely enjoying the puns while Donald scolded for him to be quiet.

"Go, Rapidash!"

Sora's eyes widened, smiling again. "Whoa!" he said at the sight of the regal pokemon, looking very much like Ponyta had been, though this one was much, much bigger and had a single horn on its forehead. Strong flames made its mane and tail just like Ponyta, but they were much larger and fire also spewed from above its hooves. Rapidash tossed its head with a challenging, "Brr!"

Despite Pikachu being tired, Red allowed him to continue battling when he saw his cheeks sparking again, returning the challenge to the Rapidash in front of them. Blaine smiled and rose a hand. "Rapidash, Fire Spin!" he shouted.

A stream of flames sprung forward from Rapidash's mane, quickly circling Pikachu and the mouse cried out, wincing and looked around himself, trying to find a way out. Red gritted his teeth together and snapped his fingers, which Sora, Donald and Goofy had come to learn that meant Thunderbolt. Pikachu took in a breath and soon exploded with electricity again, shooting the strong attack towards Rapidash and shouted, "CHU!"

"Donald, why can't you do magic like that?" Goofy asked.

"Because this isn't magic!" Donald replied, tapping his foot again.

"Then what is it?" Sora said, turning towards the duck.

"I don't know!"

Sora laughed and turned back to the battle.

Rapidash neighed, stumbling back a few steps but remained standing. It snorted when the fire spin faded, leaving a breathless Pikachu standing in the arena shakily but when he tried to take a step, he collapsed, fainted. Red smiled a bit and took out his pokeball, returning the Pikachu. Rapidash, while still standing, had some sparks coming from its body, paralysis affecting it though Blaine laughed. "Your Pikachu is pretty good. Not many can take down Growlithe and Ponyta with one pokemon, let alone a Pikachu then paralyze my Rapidash. You're something else, but you're going to need something bigger and stronger than it to take down Rapidash here!" he taunted.

Red grinned as if it was funny and successfully confused the gym leader then he threw another pokeball onto the field.

Blastoise exploded onto the field and immediately fired Water Pulse then roared as soon as the attack hit Rapidash and Blaine lost his smile. _Karma._

He knew that if this kid's Pikachu was powerful, this Blastoise would be just as, if not more, powerful. He also mentally added the fact that even though this kid said not a word the entire time during the battle, his pokemon fully trusted him and did whatever it was he commanded. He briefly wondered how in the world he was controlling his pokemon until he could see his hands moving from time to time.

He couldn't help but to feel a slight chill down his spine when he saw those eyes. When the kid had walked in, he looked eager and he was all smiles. Now that they were battling, he didn't smile and those eyes were cold, as if they could just look into his very being. He was fully concentrated on the battle, he was a _real_ challenger, one he hadn't had in such a long time (even though the other kid was just as good as this one, he didn't make this giddy feeling stay in him constantly)! Despite the kid's cold stance and overpowered water-type, he was excited as he readied himself for the next attack.

Sora looked eager; he'd seen Blastoise in action at the Seafoam Islands, but that was against the Heartless and not against other pokemon. He cheered Blastoise alongside Goofy and Donald, though Red and Blastoise knew better than to pay attention to anything else but the battle. It could cost them a badge if they got distracted, after all. However, during the match even he knew that this Red was a completely different one that was traveling with them. He wasn't at all careless in his battle, he was calculating every single move and quite possibly every outcome that he could think of. He would even say that he was one of the smartest people he knew.

Red nodded at Blastoise, directing him to use Skull Bash. With speed that shocked Blaine, Blastoise ran forward, the tip of its head glowing a bit as he rushed for the fire-type. "Rapidash, quick! Use another Fire Spin! Trap Blastoise!" he shouted.

Rapidash tried to obey, but it was struggling to move, the paralysis affecting it. Red smirked when he saw this and watched as Blastoise hit Rapidash dead-on, sending it flying and hit the ground. Rapidash panted as it got back up onto shaky hooves, using Bounce to avoid another Water Pulse. Blastoise looked up as Rapidash came flying down towards him then quickly sidestepped as fast as he could and Rapidash landed on the ground hard, sending bits and pieces of sand and dirt flying. Red covered his eyes and Sora coughed, a bit of dust entering his mouth.

Red could see Rapidash struggling to get up again due to the paralysis and quickly he snapped, glad that Blastoise fired Water Pulse before Rapidash could get away again. He sighed with slight relief when Rapidash fainted, limp among the broken ground.

Blaine honestly did not expect that Blastoise to take out Rapidash so quickly and he took his final pokeball into his hands, looking at the pokemon inside. "It's up to you, Arcanine! Come get it while it's hot!"

The majestic mutt appeared onto the field and howled loudly, which rumbled through the ground until it was done. Arcanine got into a defensive position the moment it spotted Blastoise, knowing it was in for a tough battle as it bared its many sharp teeth. The water turtle eyed its opponent, giving a snort as it lowered its cannons for another Water Pulse.

"Arcanine, dodge it and get up close with Bite!"

Arcanine jumped out of the way before it was hit, running quickly for Blastoise and latched itself onto its arm. Blastoise gave a pained grunt but managed to force Arcanine off with a bit of a struggle and a Skull Bash. The fire dog landed in front of Blastoise, barking once.

"Arcanine, Fire Blast!"

This time when Arcanine opened its jaws again but it spewed a hot flame from its mouth, forming quickly into the shape of a star as it flew towards Blastoise, who didn't move.

There was an explosion when it hit and Blaine smiled. With that kind of power, even a powerful water-type didn't stand a chance. When the smoke cleared, though, he could see Red smiling and he was surprised when Blastoise remained standing, looking unharmed. "Oh, I see," Blaine said to himself, seeing the last bits of Protect fade and Blastoise roar, the two cannons producing enough water to use Surf. "You are indeed a fighter."

Arcanine yelped and flew in the air for a moment before it came crashing down in front of Blaine, though it didn't get up. Blaine laughed as he returned his prized pokemon. "Hah! You smoked me, kid! I've been burned down to nothing! Not even ashes remain!" He walked forward, pulling something out of his pocket and from his seat, Sora could see it was small and red. "Here's the Volcano Badge." Red took it gratefully, nodding as he placed it into the badge case and soon pocketed it again.

Sora, Donald and Goofy jumped from their seats, cheering. "You did it, Red!" Donald said happily as a smiling Red recalled Blastoise.

Red turned to them and laughed silently as Goofy hugged him, picking him up in the process. "Yay, Red!" he shouted with Donald.

"There's one more badge, right?" Sora asked as Goofy set Red down.

Donald looked up at them and said, "Blue said he had six and told us that there were eight that he needed to get to challenge the Elite Four."

Blaine nodded. "Yes, eight indeed! This is your seventh, I see," he said to them. "The last one is in Viridian City, but unfortunately it seems as though the gym leader is still missing."

That caused all four of them to turn to him. "Missing?" Goofy questioned.

"Yes. Very mysteriously, too. I have heard rumors, but I'm not entirely certain that they're true."

"What kind of rumors?" Donald asked.

Blaine seemed to hesitate, taking his four pokemon and set them onto a machine much like the ones Nurse Joy had to heal pokemon at the center. "I am currently a gym leader, but I am a scientist at heart."

"Er… what does that have to do with a missing gym leader?" Sora asked as Red nodded, watching Blaine turn to face them.

"You've heard of Team Rocket, right?"

Red's eyes narrowed, giving a short nod.

Blaine couldn't help but laugh when he saw his face. "The look you're giving me means that you do know about them. Good, that saves me some explaining. Before I became a gym leader, I gave into my scientific curiosity and researched pokemon. I was there when we discovered the DNA of an ancient pokemon in a jungle far away from here."

Sora, Donald and Goofy looked between each other. The only ancient one that they knew about was the one they had read in the journal. "Mew?" Sora asked. His eyes widened. "You helped discover Mew?! That's so cool!"

Blaine only nodded. "Correct. A man funded our research, telling us that he was also curious about this new pokemon. He tasked us to create a new pokemon, just to see if it was done. He was the Viridian City gym leader, Giovanni."

Red was frozen, he knew exactly who Giovanni was—and he wasn't any gym leader—and if this old guy knew him… was he also a part of Team Rocket? He suddenly glared, an unfamiliar anger rising his chest.

The gym leader looked at him with a bit of surprise. "You know who he is, kid? Eh, well, he's starting to get popular again."

"Popular?" Sora shrugged and then looked at Red. "Red, you okay?"

Red was holding another pokeball, but stopped from releasing Snorlax when Blaine laughed. He frowned again, ignoring Sora's concerned look.

"Don't worry, kid, I'm not a part of them anymore. I left when I realized that sometimes science isn't always right." Red relaxed, if only a little.

"Uh, I don't quite get it," Goofy admitted.

"Me neither," Donald added sheepishly.

"I was a part of Team Rocket a long time ago," Blaine said, shrugging.

"What?!" Sora exclaimed. This crazy old man was a part of Team Rocket? "Why would you do that?!"

"Like I said, I gave into scientific curiosity. I have my own lab here, where we have discovered how to bring ancient pokemon back to life. I used that technology to help use Mew's DNA to create a completely new pokemon. Before the project was finished, I learned what else Team Rocket did and wanted to do with it, and so I left." He laughed again. "They weren't too happy about that."

"Mewtwo… we read about that in a book at the old house." Sora looked at the other three, who each nodded. "It said that it was a vicious pokemon."

Blaine shook his head sadly. "I'm not sure what it did, but it sounds to me like it is a very powerful pokemon." He coughed once. "Now, back to Team Rocket. People are saying that Team Rocket captured the Viridian City gym leader, but I know better. Giovanni is the head of Team Rocket and he is someone that this kid here has fought twice before. Once in Celadon City and the second in Saffron City. It was all over the news for the longest time, still is, too."

Red nodded once, his hands no longer holding a pokeball.

Blaine picked up his own pokeballs as soon as the pokemon inside had finished healing then took Pikachu and Blastoise's pokeballs to heal them as well. "Judging by how quickly you beat me and Team Rocket for those two events, it's safe to say that you might even be a match for Mewtwo. But there's nothing in the world that can catch that kind of pokemon unless you had a special kind of pokeball. That's why Team Rocket attacked Silph Co. Silph Co.'s scientists were developing a pokeball that could catch _any_ pokemon. Team Rocket wanted that pokeball to catch Mewtwo. I heard that during a big battle, there was an explosion of some kind and the pokeball was lost."

Red paused and looked at Sora questioningly then reached into his back pack. He pulled the purple pokeball out, showing it to Blaine.

"O-ho!" The old man laughed again. "You're burning hotter than a Rapidash's mane!"

Sora smiled when Red made an annoyed face, though Blaine ignored it as he handed Red's fully healed pokemon back.

"Seems to me that you're already one step ahead, kid! That's the master ball, the very one that Silph Co. was trying to produce and Team Rocket was trying to steal!" Red stared at it, then looked up as Blaine stepped forward. "Keep that with you, I have a feeling you'll be the one who will stoke the flames and tame the creation. I'm too old to go on another adventure, but if you can catch and tame Mewtwo, then I'm sure even Professor Oak would call you a pokemon master." He then smiled, waving at the four of them. "Good luck to all of you on your journey. Be careful out there."

Sora nodded and started walking out with Donald and Goofy, all three of them starting to talk about how awesome the battle was. Red started after them but he paused when Blaine set a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at him, confused.

"There is a second rumor, Red, that there is a monster near Cerulean City," he said seriously. "It is most likely Mewtwo. It's been there for the longest time and attacks anyone who goes in. That is all the information I have about it for you. I am still sorry for what I did, but since there is nothing I can do to fix my mistakes, you can help prevent any more destruction, right?"

Red gave him a smile and a nod, then finally flashed him a thumbs-up before he jogged out to catch up with Sora, Donald and Goofy.

X-X-X

They were at the beach again with Charizard, Blastoise and Pikachu out of their pokeballs again. Pikachu was happy and healthy again, sitting on Red's shoulder as Charizard took off with Red and Sora into the air as Donald and Goofy rode Blastoise's back on the ocean waves. Sora sat behind the shorter boy, frowning a little bit. "You know, Blaine was a cool guy," he said, though Red didn't acknowledge his words.

Pikachu looked up at his trainer, a worried look coming to his face as he watched the human ignoring the other passenger. "Pika," he said, patting his leg.

There was a moment of silence and Sora sighed. "What happened with you and Team Rocket?"

Red shook his head. He didn't think he'd be able to tell him even if he could speak.

"Well, even if something bad really did happen, just be careful." Red finally gave him a curious look. "It's easier to fall into darkness like that."

Red gave a short nod, however he didn't really understand what he meant by that. Talks about darkness, strange creatures called Heartless appearing… it was all completely new and strange, as well as dangerous. He sighed to himself, shaking his head. He knew a few people wouldn't be happy when they learned about that.

He glanced towards the sky in front of them again as Pikachu jumped onto Charizard's head, holding onto the two horns. Sora smiled as Pikachu gave a happy, "Pika pi!" He then looked over, seeing flocks of birds flying around and spotted land ahead.

"So what's over there? Is that Viridian City?" Sora asked curiously, feeling Charizard beginning to descend so they could land on the beach and wait for Blastoise, Donald and Goofy.

Red smiled and shook his head. Pikachu was the only one of his pokemon who had been here before, so even Charizard seemed to be curious. When they got closer to the beach, Sora saw someone playing with a small pink pokemon in the sand but they stopped when they saw the travelers approaching. The girl and pokemon suddenly stopped and waved eagerly. "Took you long enough, you slowpoke!" she shouted as Charizard finally landed on the sand, allowing its riders to slide off its back. Sora looked at the brown-haired girl, who vaguely reminded him of Kairi as she smiled at them even though she'd never seen Charizard or Sora before and seemed to always be happy no matter what.

Red rolled his eyes as his feet landed on the sand and nearly had the wind knocked out of him as the girl threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. Unable to keep their balance, they both fell and the round, pink pokemon hopped over happily, smiling. "Puff! Puff!" it cried excitedly.

Sora laughed as Red huffed and pushed the girl off so they could get back up to their feet. "Hi, I'm Sora," he said and she smiled at him again as Red brushed himself free of sand. He turned when Blastoise finally arrived and let Donald and Goofy off before standing and going to Red's side. "That's Donald, and that's Goofy."

"Red told me about you guys last night on the phone," she replied.

"How'd he tell you?" Donald asked curiously.

"The PCs at the pokemon centers have video conferencing, so that's how we communicate. I'm Green, by the way, family friend and neighbor. This is Jiggly, my Jigglypuff." She motioned towards Jiggly as it chatted away with Pikachu and Charizard. She turned to Red sharply with hands on her hips and Red blinked, stepping back when she approached him. "And you, mister, I've heard a lot about you getting yourself into loads of trouble!"

Red made a huffing noise through his nose again, then started to sign something quickly.

"I don't care if it wasn't your fault! You still got into trouble, didn't you?"

"Uhh…" Donald muttered, looking at Goofy and Sora, both who shrugged. "What are you two talking about?"

Green crossed her arms across her chest as Red paused. "Red always gets into trouble. First it was Viridian Forest and the Beedrill, then it was Mount Moon, then it was Lavender Town—point is, the list goes on and he always seems to find trouble wherever he goes!" Red scowled and continued to sign. "Slow down a little, you're going too fast! What are you talking about weird pokemon? Heart-what in Saffron?" She looked confused. "Heartless? What are those? That doesn't sound like a pokemon." Red shook his head and pointed to Sora, Donald and Goofy.

Sora smiled. "That's where we come in," he said and Green turned towards him. "We've been fighting Heartless together, those are the creatures that suddenly appeared here."

Green didn't look convinced and picked Jiggly up. "Well… you can explain once we get to the house. Red, your mom is cooking dinner. I told her you were coming, so she decided to make pot roast."

Red smiled, suddenly much happier than he had been before and recalled Blastoise and Charizard.

Goofy laughed. "Sounds like you really like pot roast," he teased and Red nodded eagerly.

They followed Green up the first grassy hill and they paused to take in the scenery, even more rolling green hills in every direction. Houses were few and far between and they weren't large or extravagant either. Green smiled, turning to face them and said, "Welcome to Pallet Town."

X-X-X

There wasn't even a shout when the grunt fell _into_ the floor.

His shadow had suddenly spread around him and seemed to consume his very being in such a short time, even he hadn't realized what happened before it was too late. It certainly made the other three grunts nervous, standing uneasily on their feet as Persian yawned as if it was bored and Giovanni tested his new abilities. "That will also happen to you should you fail me again," he warned and the grunts quickly stood at attention and ran off once dismissed.

Maleficent laughed as the door closed. "Sending your own troops into the Realm of Darkness? I like that," she said, raising an arm as a Pidgeotto shaped Heartless flew into the room and landed easily on her forearm. "A prison where no one escapes."

"I do not have any need from someone who cannot complete a simple task. I ordered them to barricade Saffron City's main entrances and he failed. It was a warning to the others." Giovanni turned towards her as the Pidgeotto-heartless disappeared.

"Our pests are in a place called Pallet Town," she said simply.

The man frowned briefly. _That isn't too far from here._ "That can be problematic. They can be here within the day if they wanted. But if they are stopping there, then that must mean it's where _he_ is from. They may not leave until tomorrow, in that case." He folded his arms on his chest as she started to laugh—cackling was more like it. "What is so funny?"

She stopped laughing though her yellow eyes were dancing with excitement. "Do not forget about my own spell. With that seed that's been planted, all we have to do is wait." She took her staff into her hands and began to rise from the chair. "The moment Sora and his friends take their first step here, he will notice something is off. Given their track record, they will probably make it here into your gym and your gym is a source of darkness. That will speed its growth, and you will not only have an obedient Heartless on your side, but it will distract the others long enough so we can get rid of them." She grinned again. "And if they are staying an extra day in that quiet little town, then the better news for us."

"And why is that?"

"The longer it sits, the more powerful the pull of darkness is. Once they arrive here, all you have to do is bait him into the slightest bit of anger and it will be their downfall."

Giovanni listened and nodded once, giving his own smirk as he turned towards the window again. "Perfect. I know just what makes him tick."

X-X-X


	6. Rocket

**A/N:** 6/11 chapters completed. Don't worry, after this chapter, it definitely picks up (and hardly stops) in the next couple of chapters :D Happy reading!

* * *

 _Chapter Six: ROCKET_

X-X-X

Green and Red led the way through the town and briefly introduced other people they walked past. Sora learned that Red was actually very talkative, his hands hardly stopping for a break as Green translated everything he was saying. Red was eager to go home, impatient every time they stopped and held Pikachu in his arms as they walked. The little mouse seemed to be just as anxious as his trainer and finally Sora rubbed his stomach when it growled loudly, announcing his hunger to the world. Green laughed about it and finally picked up the pace, letting Red go first as they neared a simple home near a grassy path.

Sora looked at the home, smiling at its simplicity; there was a white picket fence around it and a mailbox next to the gate and a flag that was down while the house itself was two stories and painted white with a navy blue roof and the same blue around the windows and door, which was painted blue as well. They hadn't even reached the fence when the front door opened, revealing a smiling woman wearing a pink shirt and blue pants on. She wasn't wearing shoes but she stepped out anyhow to greet them. Red smiled brightly and Pikachu waved at her with a loud, "Pika pi!"

"Is that your mom?" Donald asked and Red nodded, hurriedly going to greet her with a tight hug that she returned. Pikachu jumped onto her shoulder, hugging her head from the side with his own delighted chattering.

Green smiled at the reunion and looked at the others. "They haven't seen each other since they left," she explained as they finally entered through the fence gate. "It's been a few months since he's been here." She paused, tapping her chin. "Almost a year, now that I think about it."

"That's a long time without seeing your mom," Goofy mentioned and Red nodded as he let his mother go.

"A year too long without my only boy," the woman interrupted. She smiled, her left arm wrapped around Red's shoulders as she looked at Sora, Donald and Goofy. "Green said that he was traveling with friends now. I'm glad you're with him, Arceus knows he's a magnet for trouble."

Sora started laughing as Red scowled at Green specifically, who only giggled at the look. "You know it's true," she said simply.

"Well, it's no problem!" Goofy said and nodded.

"He's a really good pokemon trainer," Donald replied.

"We watched his match with Blaine, he only used Pikachu and Blastoise," Sora added with a smile as Red nodded proudly. "He's really strong!"

His mother beamed at her son. "In that case, I should even make dessert. Come in and get some lunch, all of you!" She turned and walked inside with Green following.

Goofy and Donald instantly went after them as Red hesitated, watching his mother briefly then looked up as Sora tilted his head. "What's the matter?" Sora asked and Red shook his head before quickly going inside, leaving a confused Sora outside before he finally wandered in.

He closed the door behind him and looked around with curiosity. It was a simple home with a single sky blue, three-cushion couch in front of a television and an unlit fireplace in the side wall. It seemed like his mother enjoyed brighter colors, and the only dark thing in the room was the black television. The windows were all open to let the cool air and natural light in and he glanced over to the side as Red took off his shoes and set his backpack down near the stairs before dashing upstairs with Pikachu following excitedly.

His mother sighed when he noticed. "Not even five minutes in and he's already making a mess," she said softly and shook her head. She turned towards the kitchen, where a pink and white pokemon was seemingly humming away to itself and going through the fridge for something. "Mr. Mime!" The pokemon looked over then finally noticed the guests, breaking into a smile and waved. "Red's home!"

Mr. Mime paused and looked up. "Mime, mime!?" it exclaimed and she laughed.

"Yes, he's upstairs. Didn't even bother to say hello to you, did he?"

"Mr. Mime, mime," the pokemon replied and shook his head.

Green laughed then turned to Sora, Donald and Goofy as Mr. Mime disappeared upstairs. "Do you three want something to drink? We made lemonade earlier today," she offered, heading for the kitchen to get glasses.

"That sounds great!" Goofy replied.

"I'd like some too," Donald added.

They hardly noticed Sora wander upstairs to join Red, who seemed to be stuck in a doorway leading to his bedroom. Mr. Mime was hugging Red, who smiled up at him but turned as he heard Sora approach and then looked back at the room, gulping a little bit.

"Is this your room?" Sora asked and Red nodded, finally stepping inside. His room was cleaned and everything he had before he left on his journey remained on the shelves. Pikachu was jumping on the bed and once he noticed Sora step in, he managed to jump from the bed and land perfectly onto his shoulders. Sora laughed, scratching his chin. "You're happy too, huh?"

"Pika!"

Pikachu then traveled to Mr. Mime's shoulder, the two pokemon quickly talking to each other.

Red smiled and then took a deep breath and released it slowly. He hadn't expected to feel such an overwhelming sense of nostalgia strong enough to make him freeze. He was glad Sora had followed him up, he was sure he'd still be standing in the middle of the door. He went to his desk, opening a drawer and pulled out a copy of the 'Trainer' magazine. He turned to Sora, pointing to the man on the cover. Sora blinked, looking at the picture of the caped man with an impressive pokemon beside him and jaws open as if it was in the middle of roaring and showed off sharp teeth. "Who's that?" he asked.

Red pointed towards the text below and handed it to Sora. "'Champion Lance awaits your challenge in the Indigo Plateau.' He's the champion here? So you're trying to beat him and take his spot?" Red nodded. "I think you'll be able to do it! You're really strong!"

Red smiled and nodded again, this time as thanks.

They both looked towards the door when they heard Red's mother shout, "Boys! Come on down, lunch is ready!"

X-X-X

Lunch just proved how good it was to have a real home-cooked meal. After lunch was done, Red and Green had shown Sora, Donald and Goofy around town and even introduced them to Professor Oak, who was looking over another one of Red's pokemon, Lapras. The water-type was in a pool with other pokemon and Red smiled, taking off his shoes and socks, then rolled his pants up to his knees to greet Lapras at the shore. Lapras immediately swam up to him and was just as delighted to see him as much as Mr. Mime had been, though it was leery around the others and wouldn't even let Goofy get close to it, going so far as to snapping at his hand when he offered to pet it. Red managed to calm it down and it warily watched Sora, but looked at Red when he nodded before looking at Sora and Professor Oak handed him a treat before pointing to Lapras. "You want me to give this to Lapras?" he asked and Red nodded. "How?"

"Slowly, show her you don't mean any harm," the older man said. "Lapras won't attack if you don't mean any harm to her."

He watched with fascination as Sora slowly approached Lapras just like he was told and didn't seem in the least bit nervous around the large pokemon. As soon as Lapras spotted movement, she eyed Sora again with nervousness. "It's okay," Sora said gently as he could and showed it the treat. "I'm not going to hurt you."

He smiled and took another step forward, stopping when Lapras narrowed her gaze threateningly. With a pat from Red, she looked at him and his smile then hesitated before turning back towards Sora, reluctantly letting him closer so she could take the treat from his hand.

Red pet her neck, then motioned for Sora to come beside him. Lapras watched him the entire time but she didn't snap at all when Sora reached up to pet her. "Wow," Sora muttered when he placed a hand on the scales. "This feels… weird." He looked at Red as he smiled and looked at Lapras with an approving nod. "But it's awesome at the same time."

"Amazing," Professor Oak muttered.

"What is?" Donald asked curiously and looked up.

"It took me two weeks for me to even get close to Lapras. Sora did what I couldn't in a matter of seconds." He glanced at Green. "Green, you haven't been able to approach her either, could you?"

Green shook her head. "She took my favorite hat and tore it to shreds, too," she said. "Lapras doesn't trust humans, and she hardly trusts other pokemon either."

"How come?" Goofy asked curiously as Sora looked over, also curious.

"Red said that he found her in Saffron City and the next day the pokeball was transported over. He told us that Team Rocket had been doing experiments on her and he rescued her with the other employees that had been taken hostage. She's close to him probably because he helped get her out."

Red smiled and nodded, then looked up at Lapras as she cooed again at him.

"Team Rocket, huh?" Sora muttered, looking up at Lapras. "Well, I'm glad you're safe, Lapras." He smiled as the pokemon looked at him, this time without a trace of viciousness in her eyes. "Plus you have Red as your trainer. I'm sure you'll be back on your flippers in no time."

Lapras lowered her head and nudged his stomach with it, finally smiling at him. Red was just as shocked as Professor Oak, but he smiled brightly, hugging Lapras around her neck happily as Sora laughed, petting Lapras' head.

X-X-X

They left a few minutes after that and were back at the house by six in the evening—after goofing around on the beach, of course. After they had dinner, Goofy and Donald were in food comas in the living room after dinner was over while Red wasn't much better, though his mother made him go upstairs to his room to get to sleep. He didn't argue as he disappeared upstairs, yawning as he did so. Sora laughed as Pikachu, Mr. Mime and Jiggly played next to Donald and Goofy, deciding to tie Goofy's shoes together and take Donald's hat.

"I'm sorry I don't have another bed or three," Red's mother said as she began to clear the dishes from the table. "I do have extra blankets and pillows in the closet somewhere, though."

"Oh, it's okay," Sora said and got up to help her.

"Sit back down and relax, you are a guest," she scolded immediately, though she smiled as Donald finally noticed his missing hat and tried chasing after Jiggly, who wore the hat proudly.

Sora laughed and obeyed then watched as she set the dishes into the sink and stop there. He peered around to the side, watching her flex her hand a few times before returning to get the last of the dishes. Noticing this, he gathered the rest of the dishes. "It's okay, I have this," he said. He stood up to bring them to the kitchen and this time she didn't object. "Are you okay?" he asked when he returned as she rubbed her arm. "Is your arm hurt?"

She shook her head. "Not anymore. Sometimes it still acts up a bit though."

Green got up then, going to go wash the dishes for her. "I'll do these, you just relax," she said cheerfully.

"What do you mean not anymore? Can I ask what happened?" Sora asked carefully and Red's mother looked at him. "You don't have to tell me, I'm just curious."

She shook her head and then held her left arm out, rolling the sleeve of her shirt up a bit. She pointed towards a thick, long scar that led up to her shoulder and upper arm. "I almost lost my arm two years ago. Honestly, if it wasn't for Red, I'm sure I wouldn't have an arm today." She laughed a little. "I think that's where his luck with trouble really kicked off. I think it's acting up today since I'm using it more than I usually do."

Sora noticed Green hesitate in the kitchen, slowly scrubbing the dishes but she said nothing, letting Red's mother talk and roll the sleeve back down to hide the scar.

She looked at Sora. "Two years ago Mr. Mime was taken. Someone had stolen his pokeball, so I tried to go after them to rescue him. It was the middle of the night when it happened, so I didn't even see who it was that had taken him. Little to my knowledge, Red decided to follow me. When I finally confronted the thief, we were in the middle of Route One, which is empty in the middle of the night." Her voice grew softer, staring at her folded hands on the table now. "He used a pokemon called Scyther and I didn't have any pokemon of my own, but he attacked anyway."

From the living room, Mr. Mime abandoned Pikachu and Jiggly to come to the table, sitting down in empty chair beside her. She then pointed to the scar underneath the sleeve again. "The blade hit my shoulder and cut right through the shoulder blade and through some major nerves. He told the Scyther to kill me, but Red was brave; he tackled into the Scyther and got it away from me. They disappeared into the trees and the man was shouting at the Scyther to get rid of him before he tried to attack me again. Scyther and Red suddenly crashed into them and he dropped Mr. Mime's pokeball."

Mr. Mime suddenly looked proud, grinning. "Mime, Mr. Mime!" he said proudly, puffing his chest out.

"I'm not even to the next part," she replied with a smile.

"What?" Sora asked as Green came to sit on the other end of the table with a smile. "What happened next?"

"Red battled for the first time using Mr. Mime," Green said happily. "And he won. Mr. Mime isn't really a battling pokemon, so he's always proud when someone talks about that night."

Red's mother laughed. "Yes, he is." She looked at Sora. "After the battle, we learned that the man who had tried to take Mr. Mime was a part of Team Rocket, and afterwards, Red and Mr. Mime took me to a hospital to get my arm fixed up."

"Team Rocket again?" Sora exclaimed and Green nodded. "They seem to be everywhere."

"Well, they pretty much are. But Red got rid of them in so many places, they're in hiding now. Who knows where they are," Green added with a shrug.

Sora glanced at Pikachu as he came to sit in his lap, giving the boy a knowing look. If what Blaine told them was true, then they were hiding out in Viridian City. He looked up when he heard Red's mother sigh.

"I just hope he's careful in the future. I don't want him to get hurt as well." She suddenly yawned and finally smiled. "You should get some sleep too. Green, head on home, okay? I'll wake them up at eight or so."

Green nodded and got up, snatching Jiggly on her way towards the door. Jiggly made an objecting sound and reluctantly handed Donald's hat to her so she could give it to Donald. Donald made an annoyed noise when he yanked his hat back on, instantly storming back to where he'd been sleeping to get back to sleep.

X-X-X

It was completely dark in the house and Red stared at the ceiling of his room with Pikachu sleeping soundly in his desk chair, but he wasn't able to get to sleep. He couldn't help but think about the Heartless and why they were here, about the next battle and about Team Rocket. He had heard the others talk about what happened before and he rolled onto his side so that he faced the wall, pulling the covers up to his neck, holding them tightly. He gritted his teeth together and knew that if he looked, his knuckles would be white from how tightly he was holding the blankets.

Deep down, he knew he hated for what Team Rocket had done to her; because of them, she didn't have full use of her arm and likely wouldn't for either years to come or ever again. He didn't know why he was getting so worked up over it though, just the thought of them made him so _angry_! They tried to take Mr. Mime, nearly killed his mother, stole so many other pokemon and did a number of other horrific things to others—pokemon and humans.

He struggled to calm himself down and took a deep breath before closing his eyes but just as soon as he'd closed them, he opened them again. He lifted his head, hearing a noise and rolled onto his other side, it was likely just Pikachu getting up off of the chair—

A pair of gleaming yellow eyes stared at him.

They sat there for a brief moment, watching each other and a pair of antennae twitched when he finally moved, fear quickly rising from the sudden sight of the Shadow.

He wouldn't ever admit it, but if he could he would have screamed from the shock of seeing one here, in his own home. He tried to scramble back as fast as he could, though it was pointless—the wall was there and he felt something grab his arm. He looked back, eyes widening when he saw a Hover Ghost come through the wall. It wrapped its two hands around his forearm in a tight grip and he instantly started to struggle, trying to reach for the pokeballs that rested on the nightstand.

The nightstand, however, wasn't there.

Neither was his bed, Pikachu, or the wall, and instead it was completely black and endless void, and these two Heartless weren't the only ones here with him. Even though he could hardly see, he could still make out the distinct shapes of the Heartless that were there, more than a few that tried to join the other two that initially arrived. The Hover Ghost tried to pull but Red yanked his arm out of its grip and started to run. Where, he had no idea; he just needed _somewhere_ to run to. It was an endless amount of darkness and Shadows were forming everywhere he turned to.

He would admit now that he was in a full-fledged panic, a panic that ran through his veins rapidly as he sprinted as fast as he could. He glanced back to see if anything was still following him and he winced as he ran into something, staggering backwards and lost his balance.

He hit the floor on his side hard, looking up as the giant shadow gathered, a leg that he didn't even reach the knees to turned to him. He could hear a woman's laughter, but he rapidly tried backing away from it when it knelt onto the ground and reached for him. Red quickly tried to find a way to escape, though the giant Heartless stopped suddenly when something bright flashed in the darkness in between them, making even Red cover and close his eyes from the sudden brightness. The Heartless screeched loudly and it echoed as the light continued.

When it was finally over, he slowly opened his eyes, laying there with shock.

He was in his room again and the window was open, letting in a gentle and chilly morning breeze. Pikachu was wide awake and smiled at him. "Pikachu, pi!" he greeted cheerfully, unaware of whatever had just happened.

Red stared at him and looked up sharply, seeing Sora there with a grin of his own. "Morning!" he greeted. "Your mom asked me to wake you up. It's kinda weird, really, usually you're always up before me."

 _It… was all a dream…? What kind of dream… was that?_

Sora looked him over. His friend was usually able to hide his emotions, but something was just off. "Are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?" When Red shook his head, Sora let the subject drop. "Okay. But don't let it get to you. Come on, let's get ready to go. Your mom wants to see you again before we leave."

He left and Red looked at Pikachu as the pokemon looked up at him in worry. "Pika?" he asked, patting his arm.

Red smiled and scratched his ears. _I'll be fine, buddy. It was just a bad dream._

As if he understood, Pikachu smiled and jumped off the bed, waiting for him to get ready for the long day ahead.

X-X-X


	7. Heartless

**A/N:** Eh... not much to say. Enjoy!

 **haiku101:** Oh, the humanity! Real life, why do you have to interrupt us when we're having fun? (it happens to me all the time, lol) Thanks as always! :)

* * *

 _Chapter 7: HEARTLESS_

X-X-X

It was cloudy by the time they got done with breakfast and the heat didn't seem to want to let up any time soon, causing the air to be thick, muggy and miserable that morning. Mr. Mime didn't seem to want to be outside at all, rather he seemed to want to stay in with the air conditioning running but he went outside to bid Red farewell.

"So I packed extra potions and pokeballs for you, and I also added a notebook for you," Red's mother said, handing Red his backpack. Green had arrived about an hour ago to have breakfast with them and giggled as Red rolled his eyes at his mother when she mentioned something about his underwear.

Red's mother led the way outside of the house and once at the fence gate, she smiled as she hugged them all and wished them a safe trip. Sora soon told her that they would visit again as soon as this was all over and trusting him, she nodded and turned to Red, crossing her arms. "Don't get into too much trouble, kiddo," she told him. He rolled his eyes at her and made a face as she kissed his cheek as Goofy laughed at his face.

"Red, don't go dragging Sora, Donald and Goofy into your messes, too," Green teased and smiled as Red huffed.

"It's okay," Sora said with a smile. "We'll help each other out no matter what happens, right?"

Red nodded with Goofy and Donald.

"Yeah! We'll beat those Heartless!" Donald reassured.

Green looked a little worried but she put up a smile anyway as she hugged Red anyway. "Go get 'em, Red!" she said and pulled away. "Beat the last gym and squash the Elite Four for me!" She giggled as he turned around with a wave and started to walk with Sora, Donald and Goofy.

"Mime!" Mr. Mime shouted, also waving beside the two ladies.

When they were a ways from the house, Red was staring at the ground and looked up as he heard that the others had stopped walking. He turned and spotted Sora, Donald and Goofy staring at him with mischievous smiles as Pikachu snickering on his shoulder. He felt his face grow hot and he was sure it was the color of his namesake as Donald start to laugh. "Your face is red, Red!" he said.

"I think I know why," Sora teased with a grin of his own.

"Aw, shucks, you like Green, don't you?" Goofy teased and laughed with the other two as Red shook his head rapidly, quickening his pace to hurry through Route One.

As they disappeared out of Pallet Town, Green finally lowered her arm, holding Jiggly. "Well. There he goes again," she whispered to herself. She sighed and smiled as Red's mother nodded. "Think he'll come back with strange stories again?"

"Of course he will, he's Red, after all. Strange stories are his specialty," she replied. "Now the cookies won't bake themselves, so we should head inside out of this humidity—it's bad for our skin."

X-X-X

Sora looked around. Route One was full of wild pokemon, but they all seemed to be frightened of something and it didn't take a genius to figure out what they were scared of. Heartless roamed around freely, usually in pairs or a group of Shadows. Red snapped his fingers and Pikachu let loose a powerful Thunderbolt, hitting and destroying a Shadow quickly and Donald fired a Blizzaga towards a Soldier. He leaped forward, his keyblade appearing in his hand and slashed it against the back of another Soldier.

It seemed startled, then turned around, trying to attack but another one of Pikachu's Thunderbolts caught it and caused it to disappear. Sora turned to Pikachu, seeing the yellow mouse already attacking another Shadow with Iron Tail. "Thanks, Pikachu!" he said.

As soon as the small group of Heartless was defeated, he turned, seeing a purple rat slowly step out of hiding and looked around, then gave a cry of joy, jumping up and Sora laughed as it tackled into him gratefully. "You're welcome," he told it, gave it a thumbs-up and watched as the purple rat ran away soon enough.

He turned towards the others as Donald and Goofy put their own weapons away. "Let's keep going, the Heartless are probably in Viridian City, too."

Red followed them slowly as he lagged behind. He couldn't place exactly what was going on with him, he'd never felt like this before but something about him just felt _off_. His head felt like it was underwater but he wasn't sure why. He put a hand against his chest, feeling something pulsing and saw his vision go blurry for a brief moment, but it was just enough time for the others to notice that something was definitely wrong. He stumbled forward a few steps and was caught by Sora before he could fall, who looked very concerned. "Red? You all right?" he asked.

"Gawrsh, are you okay, Red?" Goofy questioned.

"Maybe we should take a break?" Donald suggested.

"Yeah, good idea," Sora agreed, helping sit Red down as Pikachu hopped over, looking extremely worried about his trainer. "Are you all right?" he repeated and remained by his side.

Red nodded, rubbing his head as he blinked several times, slowly making the fuzziness go away.

"You sure don't look okay," Donald replied as Red dug through his backpack for the black and white notebook his mother had given him.

He scribbled something quickly and turned it around to face them. _I'm fine,_ he'd written.

"Well, what happened then? You looked sick," Sora said as Pikachu bobbed his head in agreement.

He wrote some more and turned it around again. _I don't know._

"Do you think it has something to do with a dream you had?"

Red looked up at him, perhaps a bit too quickly since a fresh wave of dizziness suddenly hit him. Luckily they didn't notice and he remained sitting, knowing it wasn't wise to get up just yet.

Sora smiled a little bit. "It's okay, you can trust us, we won't tell anyone."

Red looked a bit apprehensive but slowly started to write everything down about the dream last night, hesitating near the end of it. Sora, Donald and Goofy read it once he gave the notebook to them and Sora paused. Red had ended the details of the dream with, _I don't know what it was but it felt so real._

That sounded all too familiar to him as well and he read it over again. "A giant Heartless?" Donald asked and Goofy shrugged.

Sora looked at Red and handed him the notebook back. "Whatever it was, it was just a dream," he said. "Just know that even if you're completely surrounded by darkness, then we will always be there to pull you out."

Goofy and Donald smiled, both nodding. Sora also smiled and offered his hand to help him back up. "Come on, let's get going."

Red looked a bit confused but he nodded slowly anyway. He took the offered hand and stood, picking Pikachu up along the way with his other hand.

X-X-X

Viridian City was completely full of Heartless—big, small and in between. Sora was out of breath as he jumped into the air to take down an Air Pirate and when he landed on the ground, he lunged immediately afterwards to go after a Large Body going after Donald. From behind him, Goofy threw his shield to stop a Neoshadow from going after Pikachu from behind and likewise, Red had let Eevee out to use Quick Attack against an Armored Soldier that had lunged for Goofy.

Sora used Thunder, stunning the Large Body long enough for him to leap forward and dispose of the Heartless. He turned when he heard a noise, but he was a split second too late. A Neoshadow landed a kick into his side and he coughed, trying to thrust the keyblade into it. It jumped backwards to avoid the attack and was about to attack again when a blast of electricity sent it flying and disappeared.

Sora was about to thank Pikachu, though he couldn't see Pikachu anywhere and instead, he saw a yellow creature with spiky fur, its spikes rivaling its trainer's hair, who stood behind it and grinned when he turned. "Yo!" Blue said and waved as the pokemon beside him gave a happy, "Jolt!"

"Blue!" he exclaimed, startled to see him. "Blue, what are you doing here?"

Red also turned as Goofy and Donald walked over, the Heartless in the immediate area gone. Blue patted the pokemon's head. "Meet Jolteon, one of Eevee's evolved forms."

"Evolved?"

Blue nodded. "Eevee can evolve into tons of different pokemon, so I chose to evolve him into Jolteon." He grinned. "To counter Pikachu, of course."

Pikachu gave a challenging sound, and Red smiled, scratching the mouse's head when he jumped onto his shoulder.

Blue lost the smile and crossed his arms across his chest as he grew serious. "I was going to challenge the gym, but it was still locked when I tried to challenge it." He looked down the street. "But I also saw tons of Heartless that way, too. So whatever is going on here, I'm sure that's where they're coming from." He looked back at the group. "I'm going with you."

Sora smiled, nodding rapidly. "You got it! We could use all the help we could get!"

"The more the merrier!" Goofy said.

Red smiled and looked at Pikachu as he jumped onto his shoulder and Eevee chirped by his feet.

"Come on, the gym isn't far. Let's go before more Heartless show up," Blue said and jogged for the building.

X-X-X

They were met with little resistance along the way, Sora destroyed most of the Heartless before they even reached the gym. They tried opening the door and just like the Cinnabar Gym had been, this gym was also locked up tight. "See? Now what?" Blue asked, looking just as annoyed as Jolteon. "We already tried opening the door."

"Jolt."

Sora smiled and summoned the keyblade. "Opening locked doors is another one of the keyblade's power. Watch this," he said and pointed it towards the door. After a brief flash of light, the door clicked and opened up. "Easy."

Blue laughed to himself. "Shoulda known. It is a key, after all."

"A-hyuk! Sure is!" Goofy mentioned and followed Sora inside.

The moment all of them were inside, however, the door slammed shut behind them and locked automatically. Sora looked at the others and nodded, walking forward into the dimly lit arena. The gym itself seemed to be pretty basic—an arena took up most of the room and there was a balcony that seemed to overlook the arena. There was a statue near the door, as per all gyms, with a Rhydon head at the top of it. The plaque underneath it simply read, _Leader: Giovanni._

Red frowned as he read the name and glanced towards his rival. Of all the gyms they had been to and even though they hardly ever agreed on anything, Blue and Red had to agree on this one—it was the creepiest gym so far, worse than Koga's gym with his invisible walls.

Sora craned his neck up when the lights suddenly turned on and Red winced, glancing towards the balcony when someone started to clap.

A Persian was sitting down, watching them from between the railing and looked bored, but it had the same sinister look in its eyes like its master, who was standing up. His dark hair was slicked back, and his black tailored suit had not even one bit of Persian fur on it. They knew this man must have been Giovanni, but on his other side was a rather strange looking woman and the moment Sora, Donald and Goofy had summoned their weapons, Pikachu, Eevee and Jolteon instantly stood ready for battle.

"What are you doing here, Maleficent?" Donald demanded, waving his wand around.

 _What kind of name is Maleficent? Guess I shouldn't be talking,_ Blue thought with mild amusement. "And I suppose you're Giovanni, right?" he questioned and the man gave a slight incline of the head.

"You're still running around trying to take over worlds, aren't you?" Sora challenged as the woman laughed.

Red felt his blood freeze. It was the same laugh he'd heard before, the same one in his dream. He frowned again, remaining still as he looked between the two on the balcony.

"Of course, you pathetic child. We also knew you would arrive," she replied and turned her gaze towards Blue, a slight hint of annoyance in her eyes. "The extra guest, however, is a surprise."

"I like to surprise people, it's one of my specialties," Blue retorted, a cocky grin on his face. Red struggled not to roll his eyes at him.

"Oh, but you are not the only one with surprises."

Blue's eyebrows furrowed together, but he said nothing when Giovanni looked from him towards Red. He noticed, even from a distance, that the young trainer seemed to be fighting something off, rubbing his eyes to get his vision clear again. "And you— You've been a thorn in my side for far too long. Tell me, how are you feeling? Not quite like yourself, am I right?" he asked and suddenly grinned as Red hesitated.

He fought back another was of dizziness but he tried hiding it, narrowing his gaze at the man instead.

"What are you talking about?" Sora demanded, but he couldn't hide the worried gaze he shot Red. Giovanni wasn't the only one who had noticed something was wrong with him.

Giovanni laughed. "That Phantom did its job nicely. For once, one of the lackeys did something right," he said as he looked down on the field.

Sora looked over, hands in fists. "Phantom? What about it?" he asked sharply.

Giovanni turned to him, ignoring the fact that Eevee and Pikachu were ready to attack at a moment's notice as Persian eyed them, clearly wanting a challenge. "I offered quite the position in Team Rocket to Red before," he explained. "Back in Celadon City, I told him he would be one of the best admins we have ever had."

"Red wouldn't join a creep like you!" Blue shouted.

Giovanni laughed and shook his head. "Of course not. He declined immediately when he commanded that Venusaur of his to attack. That is why when I received a message from Maleficent, I decided to accept her offer to aid me. I was reluctant at first but after she displayed to me the power of what Darkness could do… well, that should be obvious. I gratefully accepted her most generous offer."

"What does that have to do with the Phantom?" Donald asked, making a startled sound as Pikachu's cheeks started to spark beside him.

"I gave Phantom a very special task," Maleficent said icily. "Before you arrived at the Silph Co. building, Giovanni fought Red, a show of their power, I presume. They are both formidable trainers, but even Giovanni would agree that Red is the better of the two."

Giovanni didn't seem to want to admit it, but he nodded once.

Maleficent continued. "So I summoned the Phantom and it placed a seed of darkness within the boy's heart when he was knocked unconscious from the explosion." She smiled as Red looked up with shock in his eyes but he held his hands in fists as he grew irritated. "All of that pent-up anger… His hatred for Team Rocket… Frustration and grief… All of those feelings have been feeding that seed thus allowing it to grow stronger and at this rate, he will swallowed by the Darkness before you know it."

"That's just wrong!" Sora snapped and stood in front of the group and summoned the keyblade. "You can't just play with his feelings like that!"

She only chuckled softly as if she found the entire thing amusing and smiled as Giovanni snapped his fingers.

A Heartless stood before them, its armor painted a deep purple and it didn't seem to have any shoulders or knees but it let its two gloved arms spin in a full circle rapidly around its body. As soon as it stopped, Sora saw that Giovanni also threw two pokeballs out, releasing two large pokemon that roared. "Nidoqueen and Nidoking, Earthquake!" he shouted.

The two pokemon ran forward as Blue stuck a hand out. "Jolteon, Double Kick against Nidoking!"

Red snapped his fingers, directing Quick Attack towards Nidoqueen from Pikachu as Eevee stayed beside Red, using Quick Attack against a Neoshadow suddenly appeared from the ground.

"We'll get Giovanni's pokemon," Blue said to Sora, Donald and Goofy. "You three go after that Heartless!"

"You got it!" Sora said and ran forward towards the Guard Armor. He slammed the keyblade against its hand, knowing that just like before, those were the most dangerous weapons it had. Donald cast Thundaga and Goofy rammed his shield against the hand and expertly twirled rapidly against it to strike the Heartless multiple times.

Sora grinned and briefly glanced over, seeing that Red and Blue seemed to be doing fine on their own against the pokemon, seeing Nidoqueen fall to one of Pikachu's Iron Tail. Giovanni looked annoyed, returning Nidoqueen and tossed out another pokeball. A Rhydon appeared and stomped a foot on the ground with a threatening glare towards Pikachu and Jolteon. "Rhydon! Squash them with Rock Slide!"

Rhydon roared and both Pikachu and Jolteon cried out in pain when the attack hit them. Red immediately waved for Pikachu to run to him and he tossed Blastoise's pokeball out, glaring at the Rhydon and Nidoking, both of them waiting Giovanni's next orders though the man himself was smiling. "Yes, let your rage build, Red. Let it consume you. There is nothing you can do to stop the darkness from spreading," he taunted as Red caught Blue's shoulder to keep himself upright, earning a worried look from his rival when he let him go.

Sora grunted. They needed to hurry this battle up and get that seed out… somehow. He threw the keyblade at the Guard Armor's head, one of its hands gone. The attack stunned it long enough for Sora, Donald and Goofy to attack it without worry and get rid of its other hand. Before they could finish it off, it regained its composure and jumped into the air and slammed its feet onto the ground. The shockwave sent the three to the ground and its head flew off of its body and flew rapidly towards Sora.

Sora brought the keyblade up but knew he would be too slow to block the hit, much less roll away. Before it came into contact though, a blurry brown creature slammed itself into the head, successfully protecting it and made the Heartless pull its head back towards its body. Sora was stunned and looked at Eevee, who looked up at him as she puffed out her chest. He smiled as he patted her head. "Thanks, Eevee," he said as he pushed himself back up.

"Vee, vui!" she said proudly and bared sharp teeth, running for the Heartless' feet with Bite.

Red briefly glanced over and smiled a bit, glad to see that Eevee was helping them fight off the Heartless as Giovanni grunted in annoyance when Nidoking fell while Rhydon was panting already from one of Blastoise's powerful Surf attack.

Maleficent looked at Giovanni, a smile on her face again. "It seems that you are yet again losing—this time to not one, not two, but _three_ children. Perhaps it is time that I step in?" She noticed him hesitate and finally gave in with a single nod. She noticed the Guard Armor disappear and Sora, Donald and Goofy all return to Blue and Red's side.

"You see? You won't ever win!" Donald shouted.

"Not while we've got our friends on our side!" Sora added defiantly, holding the keyblade in a defensive stance.

When she started to laugh, they looked between each other. "Then let's get rid of one!" she shouted and rose her staff high in the air while her body took on a dim green glow. The gem on the top of the staff glowed brightly and she smiled, teeth showing as she created barriers.

Blue looked behind them, seeing that the exit was now blocked by green flames, though it didn't seem to be burning anything else; the door on the other side was also blocked by the same green fire. He grunted with annoyance but when he looked beside him, he saw that Red was struggling to stay on his feet by now, a grim reminder of that seed that was in him. Maleficent smiled and rose her staff again, pointing the gem towards them. "And now _I_ win!" she cried and ball of energy gathered just above the gem and she fired it, letting it hit the ground in front of them.

The group was thrown apart from each other from the explosion and while stunned, they struggled to get back up and regain their senses as Giovanni laughed. "You know, I tried catching Articuno in the Seafoam Islands, but lo and behold, you were there to interrupt me there and you are trying to defeat me here, _again_ , for the third time," he said, watching as Red panted, holding his chest as he tried getting back up. "There is a popular saying for that. The third time is the charm. But I suppose just a seed of darkness in your heart eating away all the light inside isn't enough." He snapped his fingers, summoning a pool of darkness underneath him. "In you go!"

Red looked beneath him, fear gripping him when he felt himself sinking and he struggled to pull himself out of the darkness, though the pull seemed to be much, much stronger. The last thing he heard before he blacked out was Maleficent's laughter, the same kind of cruel and heartless laugh he had heard in his dream.

Sora gasped. "Red!" he shouted, running for his friend but by the time he reached him, he was gone and the portal disappeared. He ground his teeth together and spun towards Maleficent and Giovanni as they stopped laughing and gripped the keyblade tighter. "Give him back!"

"Even I can't pull him out unless he turns into a Heartless. If I do that, then you would only have to destroy him to free him. Doesn't that sound wonderful?" Giovanni said with a grin. He rose his hand as if trying to summon something but when nothing came, he lost his smile and grunted. "Hmph. Seems like he hasn't turned just yet—even in complete darkness."

Blue suddenly smiled. "Red won't go down that easy," he told them and stood beside Sora. "He's a fighter—for as long as I've known him, he's never backed down from anything or anyone. And usually, he wins too. So he'll win this battle too."

Maleficent scoffed. "This is no ordinary pokemon battle, boy," she told him. "With as much darkness that is in his heart, it is impossible for him to return."

"Then all we have to do is wait for him to come back!" Goofy replied and smiled at the others. Donald nodded and Giovanni frowned as the others made agreeing sounds.

"Besides, being a Heartless doesn't suit him," Donald added.

"He's a lot stronger than you, that's for sure," Sora said. "I've seen him in action. He'll be back before we know it!"

However, they were all thinking the same two words right after:

 _I hope._

X-X-X


	8. Giovanni

**A/N:** Please note that in this fic, Blue's team is based off of his Pokemon Yellow champion team. So he has Jolteon, Alakazam, Exeggutor, Ninetales, Cloyster and Sandslash.

Also, if any of the fights are confusing though, let me know! I need feedback like that - I admit it's one of my weaker points. Other than that, enjoy!

* * *

 _Chapter 8: GIOVANNI_

X-X-X

Sora blocked a Neoshadow's attack and spun around rapidly with his keyblade, hitting three other Heartless in the process and stunned them. Since Red disappeared, his pokemon seemed to be enraged as well, firing their own attacks towards Giovanni's pokemon and Heartless that dared to get close to them. Sora was out of breath by the time the Heartless were all finally defeated and smiled as Blue nodded, Jolteon and two other pokemon at his side.

"How about you come down here instead of sending Heartless out?" Blue taunted and beside him, the pokemon holding two spoons gave a loud and challenging, "Kazam!"

"You won't win!" Donald shouted.

Sora rose his keyblade towards the balcony, gripping it tightly. "And after we beat you, we'll go search for Red!" he said.

Giovanni glared at them, slamming a fist against the railing. He was frustrated—even Persian had been knocked out and was currently resting in his pokeball among the other five that sat in his pocket. How could a bunch of kids just _keep_ _beating_ _him_?!

"Be careful, Giovanni," he heard Maleficent mutter to him. "You mustn't lose yourself in the darkness. You do not want to end up like that boy, do you?"

"I can take care of myself," he snapped at her. He didn't see her smirk as she inclined her head and turned back towards the group below. "You are all just pests that need to be exterminated," he told them. With agility that wasn't his own, he jumped above the railing and landed gracefully on the ground. He stood to his full height, his glare full of hatred. "Team Rocket will not fall here, not today!"

Sora watched him and his eyes widened as his body took on a dark glow. "Wait, Giovanni—" he started.

"I will not listen to someone like you!" he snapped. "You spout nonsense about the light—nonsense that none of us need to hear!"

The boy shook his head. "No! You have to listen! If you keep using the darkness like that, you'll get consumed by it! Gio—"

Giovanni ignored him and kept ranting. "Everything that I have worked for! My entire life's work! Ruined by a bunch of _kids_!"

"But—"

"You have _no idea_ how _long_ I have been working for this or how much _time_ and _money_ and _effort_ I have put into this organization! You have no idea how much blood, sweat and tears that I have poured into Team Rocket!"

Goofy frowned and held up his shield. "He isn't listening anymore, Sora, we hafta snap him out of it!" he warned and Sora nodded in agreement and readied his keyblade. Blue reached for another pokeball and Donald held his staff in front of him, ready to use Blizzaga at a moment's notice.

"Why don't you all go join your friend!" he suddenly yelled. "Disappear for all I care!" Giovanni rose his hand to snap his fingers but they all shouted and covered their eyes when a bright glow appeared. "What is—!"

The light grew brighter and they were all forced to cover their eyes. Sora winced and barely heard Pikachu suddenly cry out and when the light was gone, he understood why.

X-X-X

He knew he was falling, and something felt like it was tugging at his very being, threatening to pull something out of his chest. _Huh. So… Is this what being a Heartless… feels like?_ he thought.

Red cracked his eyes open and unable to see anything, he didn't even care anymore how long he fell for. He frowned to himself when he finally landed on something, but it was as if something had carefully set him down, but he didn't move from the spot on his back, staring off into the abyss of blackness above. He wondered how long he'd fallen for but he then wondered how long he had left being himself.

He felt just _awful_ in this place and despite his surroundings and situation, he laughed silently and was left panting and clutching his chest when he was done. So this seed in him… He could feel its work now, his chest felt heavy and it felt like something was being pulled out of him every time his heart beat. He turned his head, hearing a noise and saw pairs of yellow eyes from multiple Shadows, each spotting this intruder though they did not head towards him. Despite where he was, he managed a mordant smile.

 _Giovanni… can't even be original… about what he wants… to turn me into?_

He looked towards his arm, seeing it was transparent. He knew what was happening, he really was turning into one of those things, wasn't he? He managed to sit up, though his world was spinning so he only fell back down and could only watch as the Shadows started to move like they knew he was losing himself. He touched his waist for a pokeball, but when he realized he didn't have _any_ of them, he let his hand fall again and closed his eyes with a baited breath. The Shadows began to crawl on top of him, each trying to get a piece of his heart, he assumed.

But all he could do was wait. What could he—just another kid from Pallet Town—do against so many Heartless and the darkness by himself?

Funny, he wasn't even scared this time.

" _What, you're just gonna give up?"_

He snapped his eyes open when he heard the voice. He recognized that voice—it was Blue's voice. But… how could he hear him? He couldn't feel the Heartless crawling all over him for some reason but he didn't get up. He just felt so tired.

" _Look, even if you think you're gonna lose, you gotta fight back! I mean, what kind of rival just gives up?"_

He looked up and his eyes widened when he finally spotted Blue standing above him. Blue crossed his arms across his chest, eyeing him with a serious look in his eyes but he scoffed at him soon.

" _Aren't you the one who never backed down when you were bullied by the other kids?"_

Red gritted his teeth and nodded. Blue was right, he couldn't give up this easily!

" _You're a fighter, someone like you falls a lot but you always get back up no matter what happens."_

He stood, holding his chest and flicked his eyes beside Blue's figure when someone else appeared, someone taller than both of them. _Mom?_

" _You're such a kind-hearted boy, Red,"_ she told him with a smile. _"You help everyone else before helping yourself. Isn't that a part of your tough luck?"_

He sheepishly nodded again, rubbing the back of his head. He guessed that was probably why he was in this mess now. He then blinked, seeing Professor Oak, Blue's older sister, Daisy, and slowly other people he'd seen through his journey appear behind the two of them, including the seven gym leaders and other trainers he'd battled along the way. People and pokemon he'd helped, people he'd visited.

" _Red."_

He turned around, seeing Green there with a kind smile, hands behind her back in a relaxed pose. Beside her was Mr. Mime and beside Mr. Mime was his pokemon, Pikachu giving him a happy smile while Eevee jumped up and down excitedly. Lapras made a cooing sound, Blastoise gave his own wave and Charizard snorted his greeting. Venusaur nodded once and Snorlax grinned, scratching his belly. Even Articuno and Zapdos stood there and inclined their heads respectfully. Green laughed at his bewildered face then said to him, _"Didn't I tell you to go beat the Elite Four for me? You can't do that here, can you?"_

No, he couldn't. He shook his head and she pointed to something behind him. He turned his head towards the direction she pointed and he paused again when he saw Sora, Donald and Goofy. Even they were here in his weird dream?

" _And friends stick together—no matter what!"_ Goofy's image said, grinning.

" _We help each other out, too!"_ Donald added.

" _Even if you're surrounded by the darkness, we'll always be there to help you out,"_ Sora said and held out his hand.

Red looked at the hand and then up at Sora. It seemed like he always offered to help people much like himself and he couldn't help but to smile. He let go of his chest, using the same arm to take a hold of his hand. The moment their hands touched, he winced, covering his eyes when there was a blinding light. As it started to fade, he wobbled on his feet but he felt like something heavy vanished from his being and he fell, eyes half-closed when he kept falling. Instead of everything getting darker, it got brighter and brighter until finally he opened his eyes completely.

He was standing and he blinked at his surroundings. He was on a dirt road surrounded by rolling green hills. He could see a few houses in the distance and he had to rub his eyes several times. He was home? He took a step forward and blinked as he saw Blue's image appear before him.

"Hey, Red. What is most important to you?" he asked, waiting patiently for his answer.

Huh? He tilted his head slightly. He thought briefly and signed, _My friends._

"You sure we're that important to you?"

 _What kind of question—_ He stopped in the middle of signing when Blue's visage faded. _—is that…_ That was certainly weird. In reality, Blue wouldn't ask something like that and certainly wouldn't be able to fade into nothingness, so was he just dreaming again?

"Red."

He turned his head, seeing his mother, her hair tied back as always. _Mom?_ Was he going crazy? _Mom, what's going on?_

"What do you want out of life?"

He was so horribly, utterly confused now. Why were they asking him these questions? He made a face. Why did he keep answering? _I want to travel. I want to see the world someday!_

"See the world? You don't want anything else than that?"

He reached for her but she disappeared before he could even take a step forward. He hesitated and turned when he spotted another vision, this one with a smiling Sora and he asked, "What are you so afraid of?"

He paused. This was the hardest question of the three. He wasn't necessarily scared of the darkness and he wasn't afraid of what would happen to him, but he knew one thing he was certainly afraid of. _I guess… I'm afraid of losing my friends. I don't want to end up alone._

"Being alone is really that scary?"

He faded away, just like Blue and his mother had.

He sighed when he was alone but it wasn't long before he winced when that same bright light flashed before his eyes. He covered and closed his eyes at intense light, letting himself fall once more.

He then thought wryly as the light consumed him, _I'm getting really tired of falling._

X-X-X

When the light faded, Sora lowered his arm and he gasped as Pikachu, Eevee and Blastoise rushed to the figure that was laying in front of them. "Red!" he exclaimed and ran over as well.

Red opened his eyes and sat up quickly, looking around and briefly touched his chest. Finally he smiled and looked up, giving Sora a thumbs-up as if to say, _That was easy!_

"Red!" Blue shouted. He and Sora helped him back to his feet as Pikachu and Eevee jumped into his arms with delight, both of them nearly crying out of joy. Blastoise lumbered over as well, hugging his trainer and didn't care if he startled Red when he picked him up in the process. When he was set down, Blue demanded, "How in Arceus' name did you get out?"

Red only smiled and nodded towards him. It took a moment for it to click in Blue's mind.

"Me? I helped you out?" He looked confused when Red nodded again. "How did I help you? I've been here."

Red laughed silently and then looked at his pokemon and finally turned towards Sora, Donald and Goofy.

"Us too?" Donald asked. He smiled as Red laughed silently and nodded one more time.

"Well, I don't really get it, but I'm glad we helped!" Goofy mentioned.

"I get it," Sora said and smiled himself. "That was your heart talking to you."

Red gave him the same look he'd given him when he told him about magic. Sora laughed at the _'Really?'_ face.

"After everything you've been through, you don't believe me?" He smiled as Red rolled his eyes.

"Impossible," Maleficent said from the other side of the room.

They turned around as Pikachu and Eevee jumped from Red's arms, both hissing. Red blinked as Blastoise gently pushed him behind him protectively and smiled a bit when he realized why. He must have scared them when he had been taken by that dark pool. Arceus, he would have been scared too if Sora, Blue, Donald, Goofy or any of his pokemon had disappeared.

"With the seed of darkness, you should have turned into a Heartless!" She gripped the staff tighter. "How is it that you have escaped unscathed?"

Sora stepped forward. It was an easy question to answer and he jabbed a thumb into his own chest with a bright smile. "He's got us on his side," he replied. "From what I've heard, he's got a lot of friends, too and that includes all of us and his pokemon."

"Pika!"

"Vui!"

"Blast!"

Giovanni glowered at them, though he still seemed to be furious. With the sight of Red returning, it only rekindled the anger. "Just being friends shouldn't help you," he growled.

"How would you know? You're always skulking around in the darkness," Sora shot back.

Giovanni laughed bitterly. "Perhaps, but let us show you the true power of darkness!" He grunted and shouted with effort as darkness surrounded him, enveloping his entire being. He eventually grew taller, his head nearly hitting the wall by the time he finished and he opened his eyes, glaring down at them. The group of friends stood their ground as the new Heartless in front of them roared. Giovanni definitely didn't look like Giovanni anymore—much less _human_ —his body was completely black and his eyes were glowing a bright yellow. From his head, two stubby horns grew and sharp teeth were bared in anger. He grew a long, thick tail and his arms and legs were thick with muscle. If they didn't know any better, Red and Blue could have assumed that this was just a large dark-type pokemon.

Giovanni's Heartless roared again as Maleficent laughed and rose her staff and the gem on top of it glowed suddenly. The Heartless' eyes glowed just as brightly as the gem on her staff. "Now you are under _my_ control, Giovanni!"

"Huh? Isn't he your friend?" Sora shouted and got into a defensive position.

"Friend? Hah! You must be thinking of someone else. Someone like Giovanni… he has a strong heart. I would like a heart such as yours or even Red's, but the light is far too strong in both of you. I will have to make do with what I have." She tapped the ground with her staff. "Destroy them, my Heartless!"

He made a fist and brought it up above his head, successfully punching a hole into the roof and roared again as he brought the arm down. Along with a large fist coming their way, he'd also torn some of the roof's support and debris fell rapidly towards the ground. Heat and humidity from the outside came pouring in from the large hole in the roof, but it wasn't long until they realized it was also raining.

Goofy gave a startled shout and Donald ran around to avoid the falling debris. Blastoise was in front of Red, Pikachu and Eevee with a strong Protect as Alakazam was using Psychic to fling the fallen ceiling away from Blue. Sora wasted no time slicing through some of the debris as it fell and jumped towards Giovanni with the keyblade raised. The Heartless made a fist and tried hitting him though he easily jumped and deflected the attack with the keyblade.

He only jumped away when he heard a very distinct _snap_ and watched Pikachu jump into the air and electricity crackle around his small frame. "PIKA!" the electric-type shouted and let loose the powerful Thunderbolt and struck its head. The Heartless cried out with pain but he aimed to backhand the small creature. Instead, Pikachu landed on the ground on all four paws and looked up.

The Heartless' arm was struggling to move and it gave a dim purple glow from Psychic and Pikachu gave a, "Chu!" towards Alakazam in thanks.

Red breathed a slight sigh of relief and signed to Blue a quick, _Thank you._

Blue rolled his eyes instead. "Don't thank me yet," he said. "Ninetales, Fire Spin!"

Sora jumped backwards to avoid the attack and the Heartless roared when the Fire Spin struck, though it slammed a fist into the ground. The force of his attack cracked the ground and the shockwave flung them off of their feet as the fire disappeared almost immediately from the rain. Noticing that Giovanni's Heartless was right underneath the hole, Blue grinned and pointed. "Jolteon, Thunder!" he shouted and Red snapped as well.

The two electric pokemon ran closer to the Heartless and finally fired their attacks. The Heartless snarled and a few sparks jumped from its skin when their attack was done; it remained still for a moment and the two pokemon relaxed a little, thinking it was only fainted. They looked up at Sora as he sighed and lowered his keyblade, but he gasped when it snapped its eyes open. It didn't give them any other warning when it managed to backhand the two pokemon and keyblade wielder out of the way with an absurd speed for its size.

Blue shouted for Jolteon as Red looked alarmed when Pikachu cried out when it hit the back wall near the balcony. He ran for Pikachu, picking the small pokemon up as he panted, looking exhausted. Sora winced and looked up when Red offered him his free hand, which he gratefully accepted and was pulled to his feet. He reached for Pikachu's pokeball but stopped when Pikachu shook his head and hesitantly Red nodded, then turned as Giovanni's heartless took a step towards Blue.

Sora lifted his keyblade but the Heartless didn't seem to be interested in him anymore and the moment he noticed it was going after Blue, a flare of alarm escalated. It raised an arm and a dark ball of energy formed in its hand. "Blue, look out!" Sora yelled.

Blue was already trying to get out of the way, but the attack slammed into the wall right beside him and sent him flying into the ground. As soon as he landed, he groaned as he slowly got up with Ninetales running after to try and help him back up. "I'm all right, Ninetales," he told her, patting her head and looked up, seeing Giovanni's Heartless gathering another one of those strange attacks in its hand.

It fired the attack and Sora sprinted for them and just barely made it in time to plant his feet and swung the keyblade just before it hit them. The attack bounced off of the keyblade and with even greater speed, it was flung right back to its creator; Giovanni's Heartless was hit by its own attack, stumbling backwards. It was stunned, panting as Donald fired Blizzaga against its right leg, Goofy bashed his shield against the left leg and Eevee used Quick Attack alongside Blastoise and Skull Bash against its stomach to knock it back down.

It hit the ground and as soon as it did, Sora rushed forward with the keyblade in both of his hands. He jumped with the keyblade raised and aimed to stab it into the Heartless' chest—

However, he didn't expect that a large hand to shoot up and snatch him mid-air.

Sora shouted with alarm and winced as the Heartless stood up again and tightened its crushing grip. It kicked Donald away, successfully stunning the mage while it used its tail to slam Blastoise and Goofy away. Sora slashed at its wrist with his keyblade to try and escape but instead of letting him go, it slammed him against the ground and finally threw him into the back wall when he was stunned. Sora shouted and shook with exhaustion as he got to his knees, using the keyblade to help push himself back up.

He looked up as the Heartless jumped for him, hand in a fist and he quickly tried to raise the keyblade in defense but before the expected attack hit, he saw a pokemon appear, the distinct sound of a pokeball opening echoing through the broken gym. Snorlax appeared and grabbed the Heartless' arm with a guttural snarl and finally said loudly, "LAX!"

With abnormal strength, he _lifted_ the Heartless up off its feet and flung him across the arena, successfully keeping it away from Sora. Sora panted and smiled as Snorlax turned his head to double check and make sure he was all right as the Heartless landed roughly on the ground. "I'm fine, Snorlax. Thanks a lot," he said and Snorlax nodded, glancing at Red as he signed something.

Snorlax obeyed the command instantly and slammed its paw against his large belly to use Belly Drum. Finally he ran forward and as it did so, Sora noticed Red rapidly signing to Blue, who nodded and quickly turned to Sora. "Right—Sora! When Snorlax is done using Heavy Slam, Red wants you to finish off that Heartless!" he shouted. "Hurry!"

"You got it!" he replied and raised the keyblade as he started to run when Snorlax's belly took on the silver hue. The Heartless tried to get back up and roll out of the way but it was too slow; it screeched when Snorlax's attack landed and quickly the normal-type rolled off as Sora jumped into the air again. Just like before, it rose its arm to grab him again but Eevee slammed it away with Quick Attack, protecting him from another brutal attack. Sora yelled as he brought the keyblade down into the Heartless' chest, and a bright light emitted from the keyblade instantly.

Red and Blue covered their eyes from the sudden light and lowered their arms when the light faded. Giovanni's Heartless lost its fight against the light and slumped as the light faded. Sora sighed with relief and jumped off as it faded, leaving an unconscious Giovanni on the ground.

For a moment they were still on edge but as soon as they realize that the Heartless was defeated, Sora smiled. "We did it, guys!" he cried happily.

"Yippee!" Goofy shouted as Donald sat up, rubbing his head.

Red smiled and blinked, glancing down at his feet as Eevee squeaked with surprise. When her body took on a white glow, Sora, Donald and Goofy stared with amazement as Blue nodded with approval. Her shape grew larger and Red's smile grew when her evolution was completed and she finished it with a pleased, "Espe!"

"Whoa! Eevee isn't Eevee anymore!" Sora exclaimed, running over with Goofy and Donald to the newer, larger and lavender Eevee.

"It's called evolution," Blue explained. "Eevee evolved into Espeon. Not really surprising though, I sort of expected her to evolve into either Espeon or Umbreon, another one of Eevee's evolutions."

Espeon puffed her chest out proudly again. "Es, espeon!"

"Do not forget, you still have me to deal with!" Maleficent's voice suddenly shouted.

They looked towards the balcony, though she wasn't there anymore. Bewildered, Sora rose the keyblade and looked around for her. "Come out, Maleficent!" he demanded.

She laughed and appeared in the middle of the broken arena in a flash of green fire then waved her hand with a malicious smile. The fire from the entrance faded and Red looked sharply to the side when Blue shouted with surprise alongside Donald and Goofy.

"Donald! Goofy!" Sora shouted when all three of them were shoved towards the doorway but it was quickly blocked off again. Red directed Blastoise to use Surf to put the fire out, but even Sora was shocked when the water evaporated before it could even touch the fire.

"Why don't you three stay out of this," Maleficent said.

"Hey!" Blue snapped, but after seeing what this fire had done to Blastoise's surf, he didn't want to touch that fire at all.

"You may have defeated Giovanni's pokemon as well as his own Heartless, but now you have me to deal with," she continued as if she didn't hear Blue. Red frowned as Pikachu jumped out of his arms, cheeks sparking again. Her body took on a green glow and she was encased in the green fire but she wasn't harmed by it at all—instead her own body grew as well.

Red and Sora took a few steps back as Maleficent transformed quickly. The fire slowly faded, revealing a pitch-black dragon standing on all fours with Maleficent's yellow eyes glaring down at them. A pair of wings fanned open and Red gaped beside Pikachu, Espeon, Snorlax and Blastoise at her immense size.

Red gulped. First Giovanni had changed into the largest Heartless he'd ever seen, and now Maleficent had just transformed into something even bigger.

The dragon Maleficent rose her head and roared loudly into the sky. The sound was ear-shattering.

X-X-X


	9. Maleficent

**A/N:** This long of a wait for such a short chapter?! I'm sorry! D: But it isn't over yet, I promise! Two more chapters after this and I'll say it again: IT ISN'T OVER! Just don't kill me now. Anyway, _Misadventures_ and _Vice Versa_ will also be updated soon, I had a large period of time of "only play video game" syndrome. But I'm back at writing again! Yay!

* * *

 _Chapter 9: MALEFICENT_

X-X-X

Lightning flashed across the sky and followed by a booming sound that shook the broken roof. Maleficent hissed as she whipped her long tail around and slammed it against Sora before he could jump out of the way. As he hit the ground, he winced as he came to a knee, watching Red direct Snorlax to use Strength to catch her paw that nearly slammed into the pokemon. Blastoise and Espeon had passed out near the fire that blocked Blue, Goofy and Donald off while Pikachu was still awake, though he had landed onto a pile of rubble from the last hit and hadn't the strength to get up again.

Maleficent hissed and smashed her other paw into the normal-type. Snorlax gave a pained cry as he hit the back wall, subsequently breaking it down to show off the empty, rainy streets. She then turned to Sora again as he lunged, jumping to avoid her tail and slashed the keyblade against her neck. She roared in pain and hissed as she tried to grab him. Sora jumped backwards and saw Venusaur's vines keeping her paw away from him.

" _You and those blasted pokemon!"_ Maleficent shouted with fury, her frustration evident as she struggled to free her leg. She took a deep breath and let green flames hit the vines, which quickly made its way to burn Venusaur. The grass-type cried out and as soon as the fire disappeared, he slumped and whined softly while Red fumbled for his pokeball. Neither of them saw Maleficent advancing towards them and Sora ran forward, jumping to avoid Maleficent's tail.

"Red, look out!" Sora shouted, holding his keyblade tightly.

Red turned his head and gave a soundless yelp when he felt claws pick him up and left him to try and push himself free. Venusaur cried out, standing on shaky legs as the dragon laughed and ignored Red's pain as she squeezed. _"A pokemon trainer without his pokemon is just a child,"_ she taunted and turned her head towards Sora as he jumped. She smacked him out of the air with the leg holding Red and cackled again. _"Wait your turn, key bearer! I shall deal with you soon enough!"_

She fanned her wings open and Red suddenly felt his stomach drop as she jumped, smashing what roof was left and kept going higher into the stormy sky. He covered his face to protect himself from the dust and reached for Venusaur's vine as he tried to grab his trainer but with another wing beat, they were too far for the vines to reach.

Sora covered his face and used his keyblade to slice through falling debris. He looked up and grunted, holding his ribs as he looked to the sideways, seeing Pikachu getting up again with the little green bell above his head. "Donald! Goofy!" Sora said and smiled as the other three were able to move forward when the fire disappeared.

"Sora!" Donald shouted and used another Cure for his friend.

"Sora, are you okay?" Goofy asked.

Sora nodded then turned his head up and pointed. "Quick, we have to find a way up there! She's got Red!"

Blue turned his head up in alarm. "Red!" he shouted.

Goofy patted Venusaur's head as he made a guilty sound. "It's okay, Venusaur!" he said to the grass-type.

Donald nodded. "It's not your fault!" he added.

Blue looked at Sora. "Alakazam can take you up there with Psychic, but you have to hurry, it takes a lot of energy to lift something as big as a human." Sora nodded as he opened up Alakazam's pokeball again and turned to the pokemon. "Alakazam, we need your help! Can you take Sora up to Maleficent?" He pointed up and Alakazam turned his head up and nodded.

"Alaka—!"

" _Pika!"_ Alakazam paused, seeing Pikachu running towards Sora.

"You want to come too?" Sora asked and Pikachu nodded rapidly and jumped onto his shoulders. "You got it, Pikachu. Alakazam, take us up!"

The psychic obeyed, both spoons glowing as he lifted them both and sent them flying in the air towards Maleficent.

The dragon looked down, seeing the two being flung up and she growled as Red squirmed, gritting his teeth together as he continued to struggle to reach for something on his belt. _"Even if you manage to free yourself, you will only fall to your death,"_ Maleficent mentioned, flapping her wings once to stay in the air. The rain had slowed into a light sprinkle by then and she lifted her arm so that Red was directly in front of her eye. _"You are just another pathetically noble child in a cruel world. A real thorn in everyone's side, aren't you?"_ She squeezed again, making him silently shout with pain. _"However much a thorn you are, my boy, you have a very strong heart. Stronger than Giovanni's, even."_ Red looked up, glaring at her. _"The seed of darkness may not have turned you into a heartless, but I am certain a Shadow can do the job."_

"Let him go!" Sora's voice suddenly shouted and Maleficent looked over sharply.

"Pika!"

She seemed to smile. _"Very well."_ She straightened herself in the air and stared at Sora and Pikachu. _"Catch."_ She cackled as Red plummeted, hitting her tail on the way down but when Sora and Pikachu didn't go after him, her laughing faded. _"You aren't going to catch him?"_

"Don't need to," Sora said and a blur of orange flew straight past her face and claws dug into her snout. She roared in pain as Charizard flew beside Sora and Pikachu, letting them be set onto his back so Alakazam could rest.

Red smiled at them, one hand holding his nose and used the other to snap. Pikachu leaped into the air, his little body glowing brightly with electricity as he fired Thunderbolt at the dragon as Charizard let a plume of fire escape his jaws with Flamethrower. Sora rose his keyblade and cast Thunder, though that only seemed to annoy Maleficent as she flew towards them, swiping her claws towards them.

Charizard easily dodged with a barrel roll, flying as fast as he could to try to avoid another attack. "Charizard, try getting us above her back! Pikachu and I can take out her wings and then she won't be able to fly anymore!" he said above another rumbling blast of thunder.

The fire lizard grumbled and nodded, fanning his wings wider as he quickened his pace in the air, making sure Red still held on as Sora and Pikachu jumped off of his back to land on Maleficent. Sora slashed his keyblade multiple times against the right wing as Pikachu took care of the left and finally Maleficent roared with pain, starting to lose height as she struggled to stay in the air. She roared as she suddenly rolled, causing the two unwelcome passengers to fall.

Sora was alarmed for a moment that he'd just fall, but as soon as Charizard caught he and Pikachu, he grinned and watched as Maleficent panted, trying to go after them again. "Her wings can't hold her much longer, let's finish this!"

Red nodded and snapped again. Sora jumped off of the fire-type's back with another Flamethrower and Thunderbolt beside him and slammed his keyblade into her head and before he could fall too far, Charizard dove and caught him one last time as the black dragon fell rapidly back to the ground. She crashed hard into the broken gym and didn't even struggle to get back up.

Charizard paused a moment before diving down to the ground and let his passengers off his back; Sora slid off first and they all turned to the dragon when she was engulfed by the green fire and quickly faded to Maleficent's normal figure. She leaned heavily onto her staff but she only panted and stepped forward towards a dark portal that appeared before her. "Hey, wait!" Sora shouted and ran after her but the portal and Maleficent were gone by the time he reached them.

"Aw, nuts. She got away again," Donald mumbled.

"Is it over?" Goofy asked, looking around as the rain stopped completely.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think it is," Blue said with a smile.

"We did it!" Sora shouted.

Red smiled a bit and looked at Blue as he walked towards Giovanni's still form and knelt down. "I think we definitely earned these," he said and pulled two badges from the man's jacket pocket. "Here, catch."

He tossed one of the badges to his rival and Pikachu caught it for him, smiling happily. "Pika!"

Sora came beside him. "That's the eighth badge, huh?" he asked and Red nodded as he placed it into the final empty spot of the badge case. "That's great!" He paused. "So now what?"

Blue stepped forward, grinning. "Now we go challenge the Elite Four and I'll be the new champion," he replied and Red huffed at him. The other boy laughed. "I'm going to go get a head start as usual. I'll smell you all later!"

"I still don't get that!" Sora shouted as Blue ran off.

Red only rolled his eyes and recalled his team except Pikachu. He then turned towards the others and blinked as Sora rubbed his chin. "Pika pi?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm just thinking," he said quietly.

"About what?" Goofy asked.

"About the keyhole. We haven't found it yet, and all the heartless are gone."

Red looked completely confused but didn't try to ask what that meant.

"Maybe it just means we have something else to do here," Donald suggested and smiled.

Sora and Goofy also grinned. "Yup!"

The blue-eyed boy turned to the confused trainer. "Looks like you're stuck with us for a while longer, Red!"

Red smiled and nodded but they all jumped when there was a groan that came from a little bit away. Giovanni sat up and rubbed his head; Sora instantly summoned the keyblade and Pikachu hissed, sparks flying already. "Calm down, I'm in no condition to fight," the man told them quietly. He paused and tapped his breast pocket before snorting. "I see you were too impatient to wait for me to give you the badge."

They scowled at him silently as he stood up, brushing himself off.

"I've been truly and utterly defeated this time."

The group looked between each other and relaxed—if only a little.

He then gave a great sigh and turned towards them as he rubbed his head. "Having lost, I cannot face my underlings! Team Rocket is finished forever."

Sora frowned a bit, the keyblade finally disappearing. "So… what are you going to do now?"

The man paused. "Perhaps I'll try and study pokemon instead." He looked towards the road and started walking. "Let us meet again someday, perhaps." He waved with one arm and disappeared when he turned the corner.

There was a brief moment of silence. " _Now_ is it over?" Goofy asked and they erupted into laughed soon after that.

X-X-X

That night, they were in the pokemon center, Red's pokemon were healed and they were each in bed. Goofy was snoring loudly and Donald was talking in his sleep while both Sora and Red were still up. Red showed Sora the notebook he'd been writing in with a slight smile. _'First there is Victory Road, then after we get through that I can challenge the Elite Four and the champion.'_

"Lance, right?" Sora whispered.

Red nodded.

"After today, I don't think you will have any problems with that guy."

Red laughed silently and took the notebook again. _'I hope not. I'm really nervous though.'_

"Really? Nervous about what?"

There was a pause before Red started to write again. _'I told Green I'd beat the Elite Four, but what if I can't?'_

Sora smiled again, this time mischievously. "You like her, don't you?"

Red's face turned a bright pink and even in the darkness, Sora could see it as he laughed as quietly as he could so he didn't wake the other two up. _'No! It's just complicated! She's my neighbor!'_

"Uh huh, 'just' your neighbor?" He grinned as Red scowled. "It's okay, Red! I promise I won't tell anyone!"

Red hesitated before he started writing again. _'Not even Donald or Goofy?'_

He shook his head and made a zipping movement against his mouth. "My lips are sealed."

The raven-haired boy sighed. _'Fine. I'm gonna go to bed now. I'm tired and it's late.'_

He closed the notebook and Sora smiled. "Good night, Red."

X-X-X

In the morning, all four of them were in front of a rather large cave entrance, looming over them dangerously. The eight guards had all checked and verified Red's badges and constantly made sure that Sora, Donald and Goofy were indeed not trainers before letting them pass. Red looked up at the cave and gulped, then looked at the trio as they all made a silly face that caused Pikachu to instantly laugh and Red to smile, successfully releasing some of the stress that was still in him.

As they stepped into Victory Road, Red couldn't help but feel glad he'd met these three strange friends. He was pretty sure if he'd done this alone, he'd be much more frightened of the many different ways to get lost in this place.

X-X-X


	10. Champion

**A/N:** So I know in the games you walk forward and go to the different rooms, but this'll be just one arena because reasons. Also, I figured I might as well finish this before updating the other two fics, so you lucky people get to enjoy this ending before the other two get continued, haha.

 **haiku101:** No crying allowed! xP

* * *

 _Chapter 10: CHAMPION_

X-X-X

The long and dark road through Victory Road only took a couple of hours to get through, but Sora was pretty sure they would have gotten through it quicker had it not been for the wild pokemon and challenging trainers along the way. They had even met up with Blue at the end, where Red and he had a one-on-one using Jolteon and Pikachu.

The ending of said battle, however, could only be counted as a draw since both electric types had fainted at the same time. After Blue had left, Pikachu whined something to Red that his trainer only smiled at and patted his head as he sprayed a bit of a Hyper Potion onto his fur. Goofy and Donald headed out the cave, gaping at the sight before them. "Wow," Donald said slowly as he stopped and looked up.

"Gawrsh, this place sure is big!" Goofy mentioned and turned his head. "Sora, Red! Come look!"

Red glanced up at him and stood to his height and Sora followed he and Pikachu out the cave. The keyblade wielder winced a bit and covered his eyes from the sunlight and removed it as soon as his eyes adjusted. "Whoa," he said under his breath. The path was wide before them, statues of different pokemon on either side, one he recognized to be the statue of a Rhydon. Behind the statues was a manicured lawn surrounded by the peaks of the mountains and on the other side of the path was a tall, red and gold building with a pair of doors on the front that were open, inviting them in.

Despite the calm that surrounded the Indigo Plateau, there seemed to be the vying air of competiveness hanging in the air, ready to choke them at a moment's notice. Red sensed it almost immediately, gulping as he stared ahead. He'd worked this hard to come here, he couldn't turn around now. He glanced at Pikachu as he jumped onto his shoulder and smiled brightly with a confident, "Pika pi!"

 _You have more confidence than me, buddy,_ he thought to himself as he scratched the yellow mouse's chin.

"C'mon, let's go," Sora said and started walking.

"The Elite Four won't beat itself, you know!" Donald added as he smiled up at Red.

Goofy gave him a gentle push to get him to start walking. "Don't be nervous, you'll be fine, a-hyuck!" he encouraged.

Red stumbled a couple of steps forward and looked at them and nodded as he followed Sora towards the double doors. As the five entered, each head that was inside the lobby turned their heads to see who it was. Red did his best to ignore them, going to a reception desk in front of them with a woman behind it that looked up as she gave them a critical eye towards them as well. "Are you all here to challenge the League?" she said, straight to the point.

"Nope, just him," Sora answered and patted Red's shoulder.

"Right. There is a rule prohibiting friends from joining the arena, but there are stands where you and others can watch the battles." She pointed to the right. "Over there is where you can heal your pokemon if you need and to the left is a pokemart if you need supplies. You cannot turn around and come heal your pokemon after a match, you must continue on. If all of your pokemon faint, then you must start from the first member again." She handed Red a slip of paper and pen. "I need you to write your name and age, and I need to see your pokedex to verify your trainer identification," she continued.

Red complied as he pulled the pokedex out and wrote briefly on the piece of paper that he handed back to the lady.

After a brief moment of her clicking some keys into the computer, she handed him his pokedex back. "Good luck, Red. You can see the two men over there to start. As for you three, you can enter the stands through this door."

"Thank you!" Goofy said as he followed the others towards the Nurse Joy so Red's pokemon could be healed and rested.

As they waited for it to be done, Red took a deep breath as he stared at his knees. This was it and he could hardly believe it. This is what he'd been working so hard for and now that he was finally here, the nerves were only back and gave him a constantly upset stomach despite the other three trying to tell him he'd be fine. Once his pokemon had finished healing, he glanced towards the guarded door and turned to the other three with a partially gloved fist raised with a smile.

Sora grinned. "Good luck, but I know you won't need it," he said as he bumped his fist with his own.

Goofy and Donald added their own fists and Red blinked as Pikachu jumped from his shoulder and nimbly climbed to his forearm and added his own tiny paw to the group. "Chu, pika!"

They laughed and parted ways to take their respective places on and off the field.

Sora led the way up the stairs as Donald and Goofy talked with each other about various different things about the place, and as soon as they stepped out of the staircase and headed into the stands, all three could barely stop to stare at what was in front of them before taking their seats on the front row near the middle of the field.

The arena was a large, indoor arena that had stands all around and large enough to fit hundreds of people at the same time. At the current moment, there were only a few people spectating, a few of them were trainers that Sora recognized from Victory Road and he assumed they were here to see if they could form strategies to beat the Elite Four by watching others. He looked down as he spotted Red appear onto the field from the set of doors, which closed behind him the moment he'd stepped onto the field.

"Hey, isn't that the kid that smoked us on Victory Road?" Sora heard someone say from behind them.

"Yeah, it is. Man, if he's challenging them I don't think we'll ever get to their level," another person replied.

Sora turned around, seeing the pair of ace trainers three rows above theirs but instead, he smiled. "Don't think that way," he told them. "If you work and train hard, I'm sure you'll get up to their level and beat them someday too!"

They both stared and broke into smiles. "Thanks," the one with green hair said.

He nodded and turned back around as he heard another set of doors opening and revealed the first member of the Elite Four.

X-X-X

Sora wasn't the only one to be astonished in the arena; from the sound of things, the Elite Four were top trainers in the world, very difficult to take down and Red practically blew through all four of them with little more than a few bruises here and there.

Even though he had some obvious difficulty with Agatha's Gengar, he didn't seem to be doing too bad. The only one who'd fainted was Espeon, but she was up again after Red used a revive just after Lance's final Dragonite fainted and declared him the winner. The arena had filled with more people after hearing that a kid was beating the Elite Four with no trouble, most of them cheering as Lance returned his precious dragon.

The caped man said something under his breath to the pokeball before clipping it to his belt and approached Red, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I still can't believe my dragons lost to you, Red! You're the pokemon league champion now." Before Red could explode with joy, he continued and removed his hand. "That's what I'd like to say at least. You have to face the real champion now, he beat the Elite Four before you. Good luck, Red!"

He turned around, waving as he walked out the doors he'd entered from and Red returned Espeon, leaving Pikachu alone beside his feet loyally.

"But I thought Lance was the champion!" Goofy exclaimed.

"Someone must've beaten him," Sora answered as the doors opened again.

"But who?" asked Donald.

Sora didn't answer, instead his eyes were fixed on the real champion and once he stepped through, he thought Goofy and Donald's jaws hit the floor, much like Red's own shocked face.

"You actually made it! I knew you would!"

Blue stepped forward, giving a cocky grin as he stopped at his own side, taking a pokeball into his hand. "While you were fooling around, Red, I was actually working on my Pokedex, I looked all over for powerful pokemon!"

Red rolled his eyes as his rival tossed the pokeball into his other hand expertly and used his empty hand to jab a thumb towards himself.

"Not only that, I assembled teams that would beat any pokemon type! And now, I am the pokemon league champion! Red! Do you know what that means?"

Sora, Donald and Goofy looked at each other with a shrug while Red grabbed his own pokeball, a determined look on his face that. Sora noticed other spectators murmuring something to each other, mostly asking each other if the two trainers knew each other and wondering how old they must have been.

The new champion clearly didn't hear or see any of them, his eyes fixed on the boy on the other side. "I'll tell you—I am the most powerful trainer in the world!"

As Sandslash appeared, Venusaur arrived just as quickly with a loud roar in front of Red and he sent three little seeds towards the ground-type. As quick as a flash, Blue shouted, "Dodge it and use Slash!"

Red waited for Sandslash to get close and when the ground-type jumped and claws grew large, he snapped his fingers loudly. A thick cloud of purple dust flew from the top of Venusaur's tree, the leaves moving individually to help aim the Poison Powder so it coated the ground-type in poison. Sandslash coughed in surprise, falling back to the ground and tried wiping his face free of the poisonous dust. Red didn't give any other warning other than another snap as Venusaur opened his mouth wide and a stream of purple liquid fired and hit the unprepared pokemon.

Blue grinned as Sandslash got back up. "I didn't know you taught Venusaur Venoshock. You always surprise me, Red, but it's my turn. Sandslash, Earthquake!"

Sora watched as moves were thrown back and forth, growing more and more powerful and entranced the crowd completely. After Blue's Ninetales had fainted from Blastoise's Surf, he rubbed his head. "Wow, I never thought a battle would be _this_ awesome!" he said with a smile.

"I know, right? They've always been rivals, even before they were trainers," said a feminine voice behind them that caused all three to turn their heads. "People are already calling them the Pallet Boys, too."

"Green!" Donald exclaimed.

"When did you get here?" Goofy asked and the girl giggled, holding Jiggly in her lap as the pink pokemon waved at the three.

"Just a few minutes ago. Professor Oak is downstairs in the lobby somewhere, I asked him to take me with him so I could congratulate Blue on becoming champion, but it seems we got here in time to see Red already challenging him."

They each turned back to the field when there was an explosion and saw that Blastoise had collapsed from a powerful Thunder from Blue's Jolteon.

"I want to say that they're pretty even," Green said, "but Red has the upper hand with Pikachu and Espeon left while Blue only has Jolteon."

"Yeah, but Pikachu is super tired after struggling with Cloyster," Donald mentioned, "and all the other battles, too."

"Do you mean Red is going to win?" Sora asked hopefully.

"I don't know, Jolteon could overpower both of them and Red would be forced to start all over again, and that would suck." The girl smiled. "But I'm proud of them both anyway!"

Red released Espeon, her violet fur shining underneath the florescent lights as she hummed peacefully at her opponent. Without wasting a beat, he nodded at her and she nodded in understanding, her eyes glowing brightly as she used her psychic power. "Espeo-ooon!" she shouted, the floor suddenly lining the broken pieces of ground and lifted the larger ones into the air. Instead of simply throwing them towards Jolteon for an attack, she simply dropped them roughly, creating a few walls throughout the arena.

"What is he up to?" Green asked, looking confused.

"I have no idea," Sora admitted.

Even Blue looked a bit confused, but he was doing his best to hide it. "Jolteon, use Quick Attack, get close to Espeon!"

Jolteon was quick, rapidly approaching but he suddenly had to stop when a wall close to him suddenly topped down, narrowly missing him. Blue looked confused and looked towards Espeon, gritting his teeth together when he noticed her eyes were still giving that same psychic glow as before. "You're just slowing Jolteon down, Jolteon, keep going!"

Jolteon nodded and sprinted forward, dodging one falling rock after another. Red looked calm, watching Jolteon with his eyes as the eeveelution got closer.

"Jolteon, use Thunderbolt!" Blue shouted once his starter was close enough.

"Jolt!" The electric-type's fur crackled and glowed yellow as he sent the bolt towards the still Espeon.

She seemed to smile and just before the attack hit her, one of the large rocks had flown towards her and intercepted suddenly, successfully creating the weak shield. Red and Blue both had to cover their eyes as dust and small rocks flew everywhere. Jolteon landed on his feet and shook his fur as the dust settled but looked around wildly; Espeon was no longer sitting there in front of him like before.

Blue also looked around, trying to find her and looked up as Red snapped. "Jolteon, above you!" he shouted as Espeon fell back to the ground and fired a Shadow Ball.

Jolteon looked up and cried loudly as the attack hit him and slammed him into the ground just before Espeon landed back on her feet. Jolteon shook as he got back up onto his paws again, ears flat on his head now in frustration. "Jolteon, Pin Missile!" Blue shouted and Espeon instantly struggled to dodge the attacks, yipping as the attacks hit her over and over again.

From how exhausted she had been before, she panted and winced. The two eeveelutions stood there staring at each other for a good five seconds before finally the lavender pokemon collapsed onto her side with an exhausted sigh. Blue grinned and the cheers were loud as Red clipped her pokeball to his belt before looking at his shoulder with a nod.

Pikachu jumped forward expertly, swishing his tail once as he studied Jolteon.

"Jolteon, Quick Attack!" Blue ordered.

Pikachu matched Jolteon's speed, dodging attack for attack with his own Quick Attack but when he started to multiply, Donald gaped. "What kind of magic is that?!" he shouted and Green laughed at the duck.

"It isn't magic, Donald," Sora replied.

"That's an evasive move called Double Team," Green explained. "Red's trying to be careful. He knows Pikachu's tired, but so is Jolteon, but he can't rush this because he can still lose."

Jolteon looked around himself as he tried to find the real Pikachu, glancing at Blue as he shook his head. "It's okay, Jolteon! Use Thunderbolt on all of them, you'll find the real one eventually!"

Red let him. He watched as Thunderbolt after Thunderbolt was sent, each going through a fake Pikachu until only two remained. Jolteon was panting hard, looking exhausted and he barely even made his fingers to signal Iron Tail before the fake Pikachu faded and the real one leaped into the air and turned into a tight circle, spinning rapidly with his now-silver tail slamming into the Jolteon.

Jolteon gave a loud scream and as Pikachu jumped away, Blue had disbelief on his face when he saw Jolteon had fainted. "Jolteon! No! After all my hard work, my reign as champion is already over?" He returned Jolteon as Pikachu jumped up into Red's arms in delight, chattering rapidly to his delighted trainer. Blue was saying something Sora couldn't quite pick up but he turned to his rival, giving a great sigh. "I don't want to admit it but you're the new champion, Red."

Sora clapped and smiled as Green, Goofy and Donald cheered. He paused as an older man in a white labcoat entered the arena, talking to the two trainers and Blue had a look of disappointment mixed with understanding before leading Red through the door that Blue had come out of.

"Hey, where's that old guy taking Red?" Sora asked curiously.

Green laughed again. "That old guy is Professor Oak, he's the one who helped Red get started on his journey, he gave him his pokedex and Pikachu. As for where they're going, they're going to the Hall of Fame, I heard that's a champion only room." She stood up. "We can meet up with Red and Blue in the lobby, come on!"

They made their way quickly for the lobby but it was nearly an hour by the time Red finally returned with a fully healed Pikachu on his shoulder and Professor Oak following him. "Congratulations, Red!" Goofy said cheerfully and hugged the unsuspecting trainer. Donald and Sora also joined and Green laughed as they toppled to the floor.

"Now, just be careful, we don't want anyone to get hurt," Professor Oak said after they hit the floor.

Sora smiled and got up, offering his hand to help Red back up, which he gladly took. "Nah, we'll be all right," he said.

"Red, you should go see your mother and tell her the news in person! Why don't you kids join him, eh? Blue and I will be in Pallet Town by tonight some time," Professor Oak suggested and Red nodded.

As they each walked outside, Sora smiled. "So, how's mister champion Red?" he asked.

Red's face flushed a bit of embarrassment and looked at Green, signing something, to which she laughed. "He says 'don't call me that'," she said.

"Let's just get to Pallet Town and have another one of your mom's awesome meals."

"What do you think she'll make this time?" Donald asked hopefully, stomach rumbling.

"I hope it's tasty, I'm starving!" Goofy said.

X-X-X

They reached Pallet Town by dinner time and after being nearly smothered by Red's mother, they discovered Chip and Dale had managed to fix the ship, using the phones from the Saffron City pokemon center. Since they hadn't found the keyhole just yet, Sora and the others decided to stay the night at Red's house and were delighted to be treated to a feast by his mother that even Blue and his sister, Daisy, had managed to show up for.

After dinner, they were in the living room while his mother did the dishes with Daisy's help and Sora noticed Blue was struggling to ignore Red. Clearly, he was still bitter he'd lost the championship and only stayed because his sister wouldn't let him go home yet but he also noticed Red wasn't paying attention to anyone, his eyes were staring at a single spot on the wall, deep in concentration. "Red? What's wrong?" he asked.

Even Blue turned his eyes as the trainer tore his own from the wall and paused a moment before signing something lengthy for Green and Blue to translate. "He says that he still needs to go see a cave near Cerulean City," Green said slowly. "A pokemon?"

Red nodded and glanced at Sora, Donald and Goofy.

"You want to go after it?" Donald asked warily.

"After what we read in that journal?" Goofy added and looked at Donald.

Blue and Green looked confused. "Go after what?" Blue asked.

"Mewtwo," Sora answered.

"Mew…two?"

Red started signing again.

"So, you found a journal in an old mansion and now you want to go after a murderous pokemon? Great, have fun with that, Red," Blue stated.

"A _murderous_ pokemon?!" Green exclaimed.

"I say let him, he took down a gang, how hard could a single pokemon be?"

"We're going with him, besides we need to get back to Chip and Dale soon, they're probably worried," Sora added.

Donald and Goofy both nodded.

Blue shrugged and stood up. "Good luck with that. Daisy, hurry up, I want to go home. I have stuff to do."

"And what might that be?" his sister called from the kitchen.

"Yeah, why is that?" Green challenged, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Tch, pesky girl. If you must know, there's a new opening for a gym leader. I think I might take the test."

Red looked startled and signed something to him quickly.

"I know, but I think it sounds like fun. Besides, I can filter out the good challengers from the bad for you, Red," he said with another cocky grin. "And who knows, maybe I'll just consider it training and challenge you for the champion title again."

Red looked unsure but nodded anyway.

"Good night, smell you later."

He waved as he headed outside as his sister ran after him and thanked Red's mother for them both before she left as well. After Green left a few minutes later, Sora turned to Red's mother. "We're going to leave tomorrow, so tonight will be our last night here. Red said he's going to come with us to see us off, so he'll probably be gone a couple of days again," he said and smiled.

His mother looked instantly disappointed but she smiled anyway. "Well, I guess that can't be helped. My Red can't stay in one place for too long, after all." She went to her son, ruffling his hair. "Just be careful, Red, I don't want you getting hurt."

Red smiled and nodded, telling her he would be fine. He yawned and his mother chuckled. "It is that time. Why don't you head to bed, I'll get you three blankets soon."

Despite sleeping on the floor this time, Sora found that it was the most comfortable sleep since his time here had started.

In the morning, they were up early and left during the sunrise to go after the monster in the cave.

X-X-X

* * *

 **A/N:** One more chapter left! It's almost over! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, so again, one more to go and my first crossover will be done! And just because I can, you other gamers should follow me on twitch. I'll give you internet cookies! :D Anyway, see you next time!


	11. Keyhole

**A/N:** Thanks for reading this fic, guys n' gals! I'm debating on whether or not I want to make another KH/Pokemon crossover, but that won't be for a while, I'm working on other projects at the moment. At the end of this chapter, there are some final stats if you are curious at all.

* * *

Chapter _11: KEYHOLE_

X-X-X

Cerulean City was a large city itself, not nearly as big as Saffron City had been, but this city had a calm sense about it, and Sora took a breath as they dismounted Charizard. The city smelled of fresh running water and people were smiling everywhere they went. After Red returned Charizard, he led the group towards a fence overlooking a calm river and when they reached it, he pointed downstream when it began to curve slightly. Sora followed his finger with his eyes and stopped when he saw a small strip of land leading to a cave entrance. He made a face and really began to wonder if Red simply enjoyed the thrill of scary-looking caves.

As Red walked forward, Sora looked at Goofy and Donald, who both nodded silently.

They didn't need to say anything to know that that was the very same cave Blaine's monster resided in.

* * *

It wasn't long before they had made their way down towards the rocky entrance and as soon as Red recalled Blastoise, a loud screech was sound from inside. All of them jumped and Donald gulped loudly. "Are you sure we have to go in there?" he asked nervously, gripping his staff.

"Yes, we have to. Come on," Sora replied and led the way in with the others trailing right behind him.

They all stuck together this time, not wanting to get separated again. Sora glanced down as Pikachu darted forward, following Red as he carefully climbed a steep hole that led deep into the cave. He'd slipped once and caught himself at the last moment before letting go. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he looked around, seeing water everywhere and through the darkness, he could see a rocky island ahead. He looked up as Sora jumped down expertly beside him and beside him, Goofy landed on his bottom and Donald fell on top of him.

Red and Sora helped them both back up. "You okay?" Sora asked them.

Goofy nodded, rubbing his bottom. "Yeah." He looked up when another inhuman screech was heard, followed by a loud _thud_. Sora knew it had been a Heartless that was destroyed; just through the darkness of the cave, there was a brief glimpse of a heart floating up into the air. "Is that Mewtwo beatin' those Heartless?"

"It has to be," Donald replied while Red let Blastoise out again so they could get to the island.

Blastoise swam quickly through the calm underwater lake and even before they reached the island, they could see a white and purple creature blast three Shadows and successfully destroy them. Sora did a quick look around; there were a few Shadows, but nothing else nor a large Heartless in sight and as they got off of Blastoise's shell, he summoned the keyblade and sprinted towards one of the Heartless jumping for Mewtwo.

Red snapped his fingers and Pikachu ran after a few of the Shadows before jumping into the air and fired Thunderbolt, destroying the small Heartless instantly. Sora slashed another Shadow away then straightened and turned around as he saw the creature in the middle finish off the last group of Shadows with a powerful Swift attack. As soon as they disappeared, it took a breath and lowered its three-fingered arm while Red, Pikachu and Blastoise regrouped with each other.

"Mewtwo," Sora said quietly as the creature focused on the brand new intruders.

Mewtwo narrowed its eyes at them, finally giving a threatening roar and sent a fast, glowing sphere towards them. Blastoise immediately put up Protect and stood in front of his trainer as Donald quickly hid behind Red while the other two dodged out of the way. Sora managed to deflect another Aura Sphere with his keyblade and nearly hit the strong pokemon, but it also dodged. He winced slightly as Mewtwo screeched again and even Sora could feel its anger rise. "Mewtwo, stop! We're here to help you!" he shouted.

Mewtwo either couldn't understand him or chose not to listen. It hovered just above the ground momentarily and one of the many rocks on the island glowed the same pink as it did.

"Uh-oh," Goofy muttered.

The huge boulder was thrown at them with such speed, Red thought they were done for and covered his head to at least protect himself a little—not that it would do much. When the expected pain didn't come, he looked up to see that the rock had split in half and Sora was landing on the ground and he couldn't help but gape. He'd cut a _boulder_ in half with his keyblade?!

Sora turned to him, blinking innocently. "What?"

Red looked on either side of them; the boulder had been cut cleanly in half, one landed in the shallow end of the lake and the other was next to a just as startled Mewtwo before finally shaking his head. He'd seen many impossible things with these three, but even with all the magic, that would have to top the list.

With Goofy, Donald and Blastoise distracting Mewtwo, Pikachu pointed at Red's backpack. "Pika! Pika!"

Sora tilted his head a little. "What does he want?" he asked curiously and Red shrugged.

Pikachu sighed. It was hopeless with these two, sometimes. He sent a light Thundershock to Red to catch his attention again and pointed back to his backpack, making a movement that Sora didn't quite get.

Red finally understood and took it off, but as he started to dig for Arceus knew what, Sora looked at Mewtwo as Goofy was blasted into the water. "Goofy!" Donald shouted and rose his staff. The little Cure bell above Goofy appeared and he sat up again, shaking his head free of water.

Pikachu pointed to Red's belt when Mewtwo turned its attention towards them. "Pika! Chu, pi!" he cried hastily.

Sora spared a moment to look and see the purple pokeball sticking out near the top of the front pocket but all three were unprepared for the explosion of dust and dirt in front of them. Whatever attack it had been, it caused the three to be flown in different directions and Sora groaned softly as soon as he landed on the ground and was glad Goofy helped him up again, thanking him as he looked up. Pikachu was slamming his tail into Mewtwo to get it away from his dazed trainer, but Red quickly blinked a few times to clear his vision. Sora stood back up and could see the many contents of Red's backpack laying around but noticed one clear thing: the master ball was gone.

For a moment, he panicked. They'd gotten a hold of the world's most powerful pokeball, what if it was lost in the water? What if it wouldn't work because of the water? He heard movement to his side and used the keyblade to deflect a group of stars from hitting him. He could see Red frantically searching the ground, probably for the master ball and suddenly he realized: the master ball could catch _any_ pokemon.

Mewtwo was most certainly not a Heartless.

He looked at Red. "Red, hurry! Find the Master Ball! We'll keep Mewtwo away from you!"

Red nodded and resumed his search.

"Hey, ugly! Over here!" Sora shouted at Mewtwo.

Enraged, it turned to him and flew straight at him, using Psychic to take many of the rocks to throw them at the keyblade wielder. Sora deflected them all, glad Goofy, Donald and the two pokemon also helped keep it distracted.

Red was ankle-deep in the water by the time he found the master ball laying in a crevice between two rocks a little ways into the water. Once he was knee-deep, he grabbed the pokeball and tugged lightly before pulling harder. It was wedged inside and as he struggled to get it out, he looked sharply up when there was an explosion from another Aura Sphere and gritted his teeth together as he tried getting the master ball out again. Mewtwo briefly looked over and before it could go after him, Pikachu used Quick Attack to get its attention one more time.

It worked and Red looked back at the ball, trying again to get it out before Mewtwo could figure out what he was trying to do. "Red, watch out!" Goofy suddenly shouted and he barely had time to cover his face as a stray Aura Sphere hit the rock, destroying it into thousands of pieces.

He inwardly groaned when he saw it rolling in the water towards the deeper end. "Do you have it yet?" Sora called, panting as he grew tired from dodging and attacking the overpowered pokemon. "Hurry up! We can't go on for much longer!"

Red nodded and took a breath, diving into the water and went after the now-still master ball.

"Wha— Red! This isn't the time to go swimming!" Donald shouted angrily as he cast Fira.

It was a few moments before Red broke the surface, gasping for air as he swam back for shore but smiled as he led up the purple pokeball. Sora pumped a fist into the air once he saw, smiling brightly. "Go, Red!" he shouted as the trainer reached the shore and ran towards Mewtwo when it was distracted, but stopped a few feet away to throw the pokeball at the psychic.

Mewtwo turned too slow and was surprised when the ball hit its arm, quickly sucked inside of the purple sphere. The ball shook for a few moments; Red watched it intently as it shook and only blinked when there was a soft _bing_. Everything fell silent in the cave again before the group relaxed themselves and started to smile. "Ya-hoo!" Goofy shouted. "We did it!"

"All right!" Donald added in alongside a guttural, "Blas!"

The little yellow mouse jumped into the air happily. "Pika!"

Red breathed a sigh of relief, walking towards the ball and only stopped when it started to glow and float into the air. His confused face caused Sora to laugh as he took out the keyblade. "Hey, watch this, Red," he said and pointed up at the master ball.

The trainer obeyed and jumped when a giant keyhole appeared, glowing on the outside and from the corner of his eye, he saw Sora raise the keyblade. A small beam of light erupted from it and entered the air, and the light grew brighter still as a loud _click_ echoed. The pokeball floated gently down again and Red plucked it from the air before it hit the ground.

* * *

They were soon outside in front of the gummi ship again, where Chip and Dale waited them, scolding the trio about taking so long to find the keyhole and something about the repairs being done ages ago. Sora brushed it off with a laugh and a wave and turned to Red and Pikachu as the two chipmunks ran inside to get ready to go. "So I guess it's time to say goodbye," he said suddenly.

Red nodded and Pikachu began to whine, even jumping on Donald's head and allowed him to hug him.

"Aww, Pikachu," the duck replied and patted his head before setting him down.

"We can come back and visit one day," Goofy offered.

"Yeah, that's a great idea! You can teach me how to be a trainer, too!" Sora exclaimed, causing the other boy to smile and laugh silently as he nodded.

They turned their heads when they heard the engine turn on and Donald huffed. "Why can't they just wait for us!" he exclaimed as he made his way inside of the ship with Goofy behind him.

Sora turned to leave as well but stopped when Red tapped his shoulder. "Hmm? What is it, Red?"

Red held out his hand, taking Sora's arm and put a pokeball inside of his palm before letting go. Sora blinked and glanced at the object in his hand and almost yelped. "Red! This is the master ball! This is Mewtwo!" he exclaimed. Red nodded knowingly. "Are you… sure you want me to take it?"

Red simply smiled again and pulled out the pokedex from his pocket.

"Oh. All the information is stored inside, isn't it?"

He nodded again.

Sora looked at the master ball again and put it into his pocket. "I'll take care of it, I promise. Don't get into too much trouble now!" he shouted as he ran to the ship before the door closed.

Red blinked and huffed silently as he watched the ship rise into the air. Why did everyone tell him that?

Despite Sora's final comment, he smiled and waved as it flew into a portal and disappeared from sight all together. He lowered his arm, glancing down to his feet when he heard Pikachu whine quietly and he picked the electric mouse up. He patted his head once and smiled as he thought, _Don't worry, Pikachu. We'll see them again, I'm sure of it._

* * *

Sora stared at the master ball in his hands. They'd dropped Chip and Dale back off at Disney Castle a while ago and were on their way to Hollow Bastion after receiving a message from Leon and the others to hurry and meet up with them, however something about this pokemon made him not want to use it. "What's the matter, Sora?" Goofy asked curiously.

"I dunno," he replied honestly. "Something about this gives me the heebie jeebies."

"The what?" Donald bluntly asked, looking ahead to keep his eyes on their route.

"It's something Blaine said," Sora continued, ignoring Donald. "Team Rocket made Mewtwo. What if it doesn't want to help us?"

"Aw, I'm sure it'll be okay. Maybe Mewtwo knows now that we were only trying to help it."

"Yeah, you're right."

Goof turned around in his seat to face the boy and gave him a signature Goofy grin. "Well, once we're done getting rid of the Heartless, find King Mickey—"

"—Kairi and Riku, too—"

"—then we can go back and give it back to Red."

Sora nodded and put the pokeball back into his pocket and leaned forward with a smile.

"So. Where to next, guys?"

X-X-X

* * *

 **A/N:** So, here are some final stats (as of 1/1/16)!

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Again, thank you and see you next time! :D


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